ASEAN forces take part in joint urban counterterrorism drills

The exercise was designed under the principles of conducting joint operations and piloting innovative tactics for actual combat situations. Officers and soldiers from different countries worked together in different assault detachments to learn from each other and enhance cooperation in combat situation, said Bai Peng, an instructor on counterterrorism at the PLA Army's Special Operation Academy and a member of the exercise's expert panel.

"A new tactical communication network was developed for the exercise to solve the key problems in counterterrorism operation communication in urban environment," said Chen Lei, director of the PLA Ground Force Southern Theater's information security department.

The network supported communications between the multinational troops as well as the communication between air and ground assault teams. It also ensured the transmission of live feeds from the front lines and that all commands reached the counterterrorism task forces, he added.

"Besides using the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, we also used another positioning system, which has been set up around the buildings to better locate the troop's exact locations as buildings in cities may affect the signals of the navigation satellite system to allow us to better assess the combat situation," Chen said.

The exercise was the largest-scale land-based counterterrorism drill since the founding of the Experts' Working Group on counterterrorism in 2011.