PLA Eastern Theater Command continues joint exercises to test precision strike capabilities

NANJING - The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) continued its joint combat training exercises as scheduled on Sunday in the waters and airspace around the Taiwan Island.

The focus on Sunday was set on testing the capabilities of using joint fires to strike land targets and striking long-range air targets.

The air force under the theater command deployed multiple types of warplanes, including early warning aircraft, bombers, jamming aircraft, fighter-bombers and fighter jets, to conduct drills on such combat missions as joint reconnaissance, airspace control operation, strikes on ground targets, and air support and cover.

Supported by naval and air combat systems, the air strike forces, together with long-range multiple launch rocket systems and conventional missile troops, conducted drills of joint precision strikes on targets.

Multiple bomber formations flew across the Taiwan Straits from north to south and from south to north, while several fighter jets conducted joint drills with destroyers and frigates.

The operation has tested the tactics of systems warfare under information-based conditions, and honed and improved the capabilities to destroy crucial island targets with precision strikes, said Zhang Zhi, an air force officer of the PLA Eastern Theater Command.