There are many highlights of the "Western United-2021" exercise
-an interview with Li
Shuyin, a
researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences
The "Western United-2021" exercise is being conducted at the Army's Qingtongxia Contract Tactical Training Base at the foot of Helan Mountain.
This exercise is the first Chinese and foreign exercises organized in China since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic. It is also the first time that the Russian army has come to China to participate in a strategic campaign exercise organized by China.
Li Shuyin, an expert on Russian military issues and a researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences who observed the exercise on the spot, said that the exercise had many breakthroughs and presented many new highlights.
There are three major changes in the exercise
Starting from the "Peace Mission" series of exercises in 2005, military exercises under the bilateral and multilateral frameworks of the Chinese and Russian militaries have a history of 16 years.
In recent years, the Chinese military has successively participated in the Russian military’s annual strategic exercises such as "Orient-2018", "Central-2019", and "Caucasus-2020", marking that the strategic mutual trust and pragmatic cooperation between the two sides has reached a new level.
According to Li Shuyin, who has observed the Sino-Russian joint military exercises many times, compared with previous exercises, there are three changes in the "Western United-2021" exercise.
One is the change of roles.
In the past, our army went abroad to participate in strategic exercises led by the Russian army, and it has changed to being directed by the Chinese army in China.
This exercise demonstrated the improvement of our military's joint combat capabilities since the reform of national defense and the military. It also helped to demonstrate the characteristics of our military's joint operations and build a brand of joint exercises based on me.
The second is the change of methods.
In previous joint exercises, most of China and Russia organized and planned independently under the same combat attempt, and more demonstrated the relatively independent actions of the parties under the same combat attempt and in the same battlefield environment.
In this joint exercise, the Chinese and Russian armies were combined and planned together.
The third is the change in content.
In this exercise, the two sides sent a total of more than 10,000 troops to invest in multi-type aircraft, artillery, and armored equipment to conduct more than 20 exercises such as joint air defense, joint obstacle removal, and joint three-dimensional capture. The joint content showed a systematic nature. .
Joint level reaches new heights
"Combination" has always been the key word for joint exercises between the Chinese and Russian armed forces. In recent years, the level of joint planning and joint operations between the two militaries has been continuously improved.
In Li Shuyin's view, the joint level of the Chinese and Russian armed forces will reach a new height in the "Western United-2021" exercise.
On the one hand, joint command is smoother.
In this exercise, the Russian military command sub-center was established under the joint command. The two sides jointly used the Chinese-Russian bilingual version of the command information system.
The Russian side participated in the combat meeting throughout the entire process to understand the mission, analyze the situation, and study operations together with the Chinese side. The commanders of the two sides simultaneously grasped the battlefield situation and jointly studied and judged the handling situation.
The two sides also established a liaison mechanism and organized task coordination meetings on occasion.
Through the above measures, the institutional linkage, system linkage, planning linkage, disposal linkage, and mechanism linkage have been truly realized.
On the other hand, joint actions are more efficient.
The two sides realized the sharing of data and situation, realized the unification of operational rules, and laid a good foundation for the joint operations of the two militaries.
The forces of the two militaries acted together and coordinated closely in operations such as joint obstacle removal, unmanned aerial vehicle call-on strikes, and joint aircraft capture missions.
Highlight the achievements of national defense and military reforms
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the guidance of Xi Jinping's thoughts on strengthening the army, all military units have focused on preparing for war and vigorously carried out actual combat training.
In particular, the comprehensive implementation of the strategy of reforming and strengthening the military and deepening of national defense and military reforms have achieved an overall and revolutionary remodeling of the People's Army.
In Li Shuyin's view, organizing and participating in joint Chinese-foreign joint exercises is not only an effective way to promote the actual combat training of the troops, but also a powerful way to achieve the party's goal of strengthening the army in the new era and to build our army into a world-class army in an all-round way.
In this sense, this exercise is an important window for demonstrating the achievements of national defense and army reforms and testing the achievements of our army's training and preparations.
The level of weapons and equipment participating in the exercise has been greatly improved.
In this exercise, the Air Force-500 early warning aircraft, J-20, Y-20, J-16 and other fighters were unveiled in a concentrated manner. The combined use of surveillance drones, swarm attack drones, and reconnaissance and surveillance drones, Gunships and armored assault wheels attacked.
In the entire exercise, new equipment accounted for more than 80%, and the use of new combat forces was strengthened.
New breakthroughs have been achieved in the actual combat level.
Under the cover of fighter jets, the Y-20 implemented heavy-loaded airdrops, parachuting by airborne troops at multiple altitudes, and combined military aviation and special operations units to implement mixed personnel and vehicle projecting, reflecting new breakthroughs in actual combat capabilities.
The joint combat command capability has achieved new enhancements.
The participating officers and soldiers rely on the network information system to build a smoother command link.
The system can internally link various combat sub-centers and connect to various combat group (team) command posts. If necessary, it can also directly reach the end of the individual platform to realize the command link from the end to the side, realizing the real alliance from the support of the system.
Pass on the ability to maintain regional peace and stability
"This exercise fully reflects the high level of Sino-Russian friendly cooperative relations, and reflects the friendship and trust between the two militaries that are not limited by time and space and not affected by the epidemic." Li Shuyin said that due to the epidemic, many major events have been delayed or cancelled. However, the normalized and institutionalized joint exercises and joint training between China and Russia have not been interrupted, but they have also been continuously improving and innovating, fully demonstrating the high level of the comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation between China and Russia in the new era.
Li Shuyin pointed out that the exercise also demonstrated to the world the firm determination of China and Russia to maintain world and regional stability.
She said that as responsible major countries, China and Russia have been working together to build a more just and reasonable new international order.
Through this exercise, China and Russia demonstrated to the world the determination and ability of the two countries to continue to be defenders and defenders of regional security, stability and order. Supporters delivered a powerful message of shock.
(This paper, Yinchuan, August 11th)
Lu Desheng Zhang Xiaoyu Yang Xiaobo