Chinese airforce holds live combat drills with adversary units

Chinese air force is stepping up its live combat drills by exercising for the first time with "adversary units" to hon its skills with simulated exercises based on potential threat scenarios posed by rival armies.
An adversary brigade was recently established by the People's Liberation Army air force and sent to confront the PLA ground force's air defence units during a two-week anti-aircraft drill that concluded on Tuesday.
The brigade has fighter jets, helicopters, electronic warfare aircraft and drones, and all of its aircraft are domestically developed, PLA Daily reported.
In an air defence scenario, the brigade sent helicopters to entice the "enemies" to activate their fire-control radars of the anti-aircraft missiles and later used drones to jam the radars.

As the "enemies" were busy detecting drones, their missiles' locations were exposed to the brigade. It then mobilised fighter jets and electronic warfare planes to strike their rivals' commanding facility and missiles, the report said.
The practice of air force adversary units was first introduced by the US navy, which initiated its Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor programme, formerly known as the Navy Fighter Weapons School, in the late 1960s.

"The PLA is paying more and more attention to its adversary units. Considering that the military continues to condense the number and scale of its units, the fact that it established a new brigade specifically for adversary simulations shows the significance the air force attaches to the brigade," Gao Zhuo, a military observer in Shanghai told state-run China Daily.

"Based on the pictures I've seen about the brigade, it has Sukhoi Su-30MKKs, J-10As and J-11Bs. All are the most powerful aircraft the PLA air force owns," he said.
Fu Qianshao, an aviation equipment expert with the PLA air force, said the brigade will simulate a wide range of threats that the PLA's potential adversaries could impose on China, so it must adopt those opponents' strategies, tactics, maneuvers and training methods.
"The PLA should use every possible opportunity to send the brigade's pilots to take part in multilateral drills so they can gain more knowledge and experience of how their foreign peers fight," Fu said.