Beijing: Amidst growing tensions on India-China’s border, the China’s People’s Liberation Army(PLA), one of the world’s largest army, has carried out a live-fire military exercise on the Tibet plateau.
This is the second drill which was carried out after a light battle tank was recently tested near the Indian border in June. Previously, a similar drill was carried out in an unidentified area at an altitude of 5,100 meters earlier this month.
China’s PLA exercise drills usually coincide with the Malabar Exercise drills that involve three countries India, Japan and the US.
According to the media reports, this live fire exercise was carried out by one of the two brigade’s from the PLA’s Tibet Military Command and was to “improve troop combat capability on such locations”.
The CCTV footage reveals that the “brigade has long been stationed around the middle and lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo (a Tibetan name for Brahmaputra River that flows through India and Bangladesh) River and is responsible for frontline combat missions.”
Quoting a release from the PLA, the Chinese media reported, “The exercise was conducted by a ground combat brigade of the PLA Tibet Regional Command this month and involved scenarios such as rapid deployment, multi-unit joint strike and anti-aircraft defence. Before the exercise, the brigade mobilised all of its members and equipment and took six hours to transport them from the barracks to the drill zone at an altitude of 5,000 metres on the plateau.”
According to Chinese media reports, the exercise carried out, and the soldiers participating in the drill were ordered to occupy fronts of enemies as soon as they arrived and were countered with “strong firepower”. “They summoned artillery forces to suppress the ‘enemies’ and sent assault teams to take out bunkers. Air defence units used twin-barrel anti-aircraft guns to bring down aerial targets”.
The 86 seconds long video was broadcasted by China’s news broadcasting channel CGTN which showed long PLA convoys traversing the mountainous terrain, multiple rocket launchers in action, anti-tank missiles, bunker busters and soldiers using rocket propelled grenades, howitzers and mortars. The channel also reported the live-fire exercise lasted for 11 hours and that the exercise was “effectively tested the brigade’s joint strike capability on plateaus”.
The PLA, previously conducted a drill on July 10 in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, “…where members of the agency practiced setting up a temporary mobile network to secure communications in an emergency” reported the sources.