Bomber formations cross Straits from 2 directions

Lockdown exercises ‘promote reunification process, rehearse real operation’

The last day of scheduled military exercises around Taiwan island by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Sunday featured island saturation attack drills and bomber deterrence flights in the Straits, a move experts said formed a powerful deterrence to “Taiwan independence” secessionists and external interference forces, greatly promoted the reunification process, and rehearsed a potential real operation.

If “Taiwan independence” secessionists and external interference forces continue to provoke, such exercises could become routine and feature amphibious landing drills in the future, analysts believed.

The PLA Eastern Theater Command on Sunday proceeded with the plan and continued realistic combat-scenario joint exercises in the sea and air space around the island of Taiwan, focusing on testing the troops’ joint land attack and long-range air strike capabilities, the PLA Eastern Theater Command said in a press release on the day.

A video released by the PLA Eastern Theater Command shows that the H-6K bomber, the JH-7A fighter bomber, the J-16 fighter jet and the Su-30 fighter jet are among warplane types involved in the drills.

Fully loaded with live ammunition, several bombers and fighter bombers of the Air Force took off one by one, entered combat formations, and launched standoff, saturation strike exercises with various types of precision munitions, jointly with the Army’s longrange rocket artillery and the Rocket Force’s conventional missiles.

After completing the mock strike mission, several bomber formations flew across the Taiwan Straits from north to south and from south to north simultaneously, carrying out a deterrence mission around the island jointly with other PLA services and branches.

The exercises from Thursday to Sunday demonstrated that the PLA can not only accurately hit targets from a long distance, but also push close and hard to the targets, said Fu Qianshao, a Chinese mainland military aviation expert.

Experiences gained from the drills are very valuable, analysts said, calling the event a rehearsal for a potential reunificationby-force operation.

Experts said that the PLA could make the drills routine if secessionists and external interference forces continue to provoke.

Fu said that the PLA is expected to continue to practice different tactics and combat elements, including amphibious landing.

The exercises from Thursday to Sunday demonstrated that the PLA can not only accurately hit targets from a long distance, but also push close and hard to the targets