China's south sea fleet conducts combat readiness patrol and high-sea training

A taskforce under the South China Sea Fleet of the Navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) left a naval port in Sanya in south China’s Hainan province on March 19, 2013 for the waters of the South China Sea and the Western Pacific Ocean to conduct combat readiness patrol and high-sea training.

The taskforce is composed of the “Jinggangshan” amphibious dock landing ship, the “Lanzhou” guided missile destroyer, the “Yulin” and “Hengshui” guided missile frigates as well as helicopters and hovercrafts on the warships. The taskforce will conduct training on such subjects as command post establishment, maritime maneuvering operation, maritime right protection, high-sea escort, rapid response to support operation and political work in the waters of the South China Sea and the Western Pacific Ocean.

The high-sea training will fully drive the troop units under the South China Sea Fleet of the PLA Navy to conduct a series of actual-combat confrontation drill according to the criterion of “being able to fight and win battles”, so as to effectively improve the fleet’s capability to complete diversified military tasks, according to Jiang Weilie, commander of the taskforce and commander of the South China Sea Fleet of the PLA Navy.

The combat readiness patrol and high-sea training is an annual routine military training of the South China Sea Fleet of the PLA Navy. The “Jinggangshan” ship is China’s largest-tonnage amphibious dock landing ship with an advanced weapon system. Both the “Lanzhou” warship and the “Yulin” warship, which have carried out escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the Somali coast, have strong air-defense, anti-missile and anti-submarine capabilities. The “Hengshui” warship is a new-type guided missile frigate recently commissioned to the PLA Navy.

South China Sea Fleet conducts combat readiness patrol and high-sea training on PhotoPeach Xinhua