A certain aviation brigade of the army: forging the "air cavalry" with steel wings

  Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, December 15th. Title: A certain aviation brigade of the Army: Forging "air cavalry" with steel wings

  Yu Xiaoquan, Han Mingkun

  Northern Xinjiang desert, deep in the Gobi.

  With the roar of engines, several armed helicopters quickly appeared in front of the "enemy" position.

  "Attack!" Following commander Cui Jiabin's order, missiles, rockets, and artillery fired one after another. A set of "combined packages" wiped out the targets of the "enemy" positions. A certain aviation brigade of the Army's 82nd Army achieved a live fire drill. Excellent record.

  Since its establishment, this unit has continuously surpassed itself, fought against the sky one after another, forged "air cavalry" with steel wings, and successfully completed more than one hundred major tasks of "National Brand" and "Military Brand", and participated in military parades 5 times. The flag guard team flew to Tiananmen Square twice.

  On January 8, 1988, the predecessor of this army aviation force, the original helicopter group of a certain group army came into being, and the "iron feet" were inserted with "steel wings."

  "From the lack of possessions, poverty and vain, to the complete facilities and talents, from the night flight by lanterns to the later appearance of the flight attendance system and the differential system in the training field, our brigade was equipped with steel rotors by the People’s Army to'fly'. Microcosm." Brigadier Commander Cui Jiabin said.

  After the reform of national defense and the army started, this army aviation force "fluttered its wings and moulted."

From transportation support type to integrated combat type, from traditional command to modern command, from small fleet to perform single missions to large fleet to perform diversified tasks across regions... They have gradually grown into a new type of main combat force.

  The pilot Weng Xiaolong clearly remembered the scene when he went to Zhuri with the team in 2017 and participated in the military parade on the battlefield.

"We are responsible for the '90' commemorative marking task of the aerial reading echelon." Weng Xiaolong said, flight training always faces the test of high altitude, strong wind, and sandy weather.

  Cui Jiabin led the officers and soldiers to conduct training during the day and conduct research at night, creating a record of "1 day of research, 1 day of training, and 1 day of formation".

In the end, they accepted the review in the harsh natural environment with a good result in every second.

  "Taking off", "platform take-off and landing", "low-altitude penetration"... In recent years, a series of tactical subjects have become the "highlight" of this brigade's training.

Based on the needs of the battlefield, focusing on the needs of actual combat, and all facing the actual combat, they have become the "main theme" for their vigorous efforts to build combat effectiveness.

  In 2018, the "Army Aviation Suspicion-2018" contest kicked off.

  "After learning about the competition course, all comrades took a breath." The pilot Zhao Jingke recalled that in addition to the flight course, he also added search and rescue, map-based marching, and combat planning.

  In Zhu Rihe's hard struggle for more than two months, Cui Jiabin hired professors from colleges and universities to give special guidance and concentrate on making up lessons for shortcomings.

"Five plus two, white plus black, many players have altitude sickness, but everyone has never retreated." Cui Jiabin said.

  Due to the lack of water and soil and the lack of oxygen on the plateau, Zhao Jingke fell to the end when participating in the 3km armed cross-country.

After regaining consciousness, he disregarded the dissuasion of his comrades, struggling to continue participating in the next event, and won the double championship of excellent shooter and gold medal coach.

  In the end, this brigade won 6 firsts out of the 8 events in the "Army Air Force-2018" contest.

  In June of this year, a tactical subject research exercise in the context of actual combat kicked off. The brigade moved thousands of miles to the northern frontier of Serbia to conduct research on helicopter tactical attack methods.

  At the beginning, due to the local complex terrain and harsh natural environment, some people suggested reducing the difficulty of training from a safety point of view.

"Everything starts from actual combat!" At the council meeting, Cui Jiabin made a final decision.

  During the exercise, the brigade set up a number of special subjects such as "Enemy Air Defense Fire Interception", "Electromagnetic Interference", and "Enemy Air Interception", focusing on cultivating the combat literacy of flight crews.

  In live ammunition shooting, the pilot didn't know where to fly before taking off, let alone where the "enemy" position was. Only when he reached the shooting area did he know which target to shoot.

"Although this kind of assessment is very demanding, it is even more cruel on the battlefield. Points are lost in training, but lives are lost on the battlefield." said Yan Pengzhi, chief of staff of the brigade.

  After nearly two months of hard work, this brigade has developed a set of attack methods suitable for the Army Air Force. The pilots independently choose different weapons to attack on the battlefield according to the battlefield situation and the stage of the war. Strike methods such as "attack" and "fire coverage" have appeared on the training ground. Everyone called this set of strike methods the "Army Aviation Package."

In the final live ammunition assessment, all subjects reached an excellent level. More than 10 gold medal shooters came to the fore, and more than 20 new shooters entered the battle position.

  "As a new combat force, the Army Aviation Force will play an increasingly important role on the battlefield in the future, and the test it will face will become more and more difficult." Cui Jiabin said, this requires us to be ready to take off and fight at all times. , And be ready for war to start at any time.