China-India border dispute: Tibet war games test PLA forces at altitude despite pledge to disengage
- Airing of war games footage coincided with Beijing releasing five Indians detained by the PLA for crossing into Chinese territory
- Military drills showcase China’s latest ground striker and rocket launchers
China’s state media reported on Saturday that a first-time air-ground joint exercise was conducted “at an average altitude of 5,000 metres (16,400 feet)”. A combined army brigade of the Tibet military command and the latest ground strikers of the Chinese air force in Tibet practised air-ground joint assault and control of enemy-occupied grounds.
There was no mention of when the footage of the Tibet exercises was taken. It showed the army’s reconnaissance unit using drones to conduct aerial scouting of the drill “enemy’s” position and sending the coordinates back, while the ground special reconnaissance team climbed cliffs and crossed canyons to go behind the enemy’s defence to provide artillery groups with strike coordinates.
The target area was then bounded by rockets launched from a J-16 – a 4.5-generation twin engine multi-role heavy strike fighter – and multiple rounds from ground self-propelled artillery units, comprising China’s latest Type-11 122mm tracked rocket launchers and the Type-PLZ-89 122mm self-propelled artilleries.
