New Delhi: The Chinese Navy on Tuesday said that the Liaoning aircraft carrier group had begun a “realistic combat” training exercise in the Western Pacific. The PLA Navy stated that the mission was regular, followed all international laws and standards, and was “not directed at any third parties” in a post on its social media site.
According to Senior Captain Gao Xiucheng, spokesperson for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, a Chinese naval aircraft carrier battle group led by the aircraft carrier Liaoning has performed open-sea combat training in the western Pacific Ocean (PLAN), China Military Online reported.
Five destroyers, including a Type 055 – the Chinese navy’s most powerful destroyer, one frigate, and one supply ship escorted the Liaoning.
Incidentally, the combat training in the Western Pacific comes a few days after the US destroyer USS Sampson transited through the Taiwan Strait only weeks after China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted large-scale naval and air maneuvers in the East China Sea.
According to a media report, Earlier, in a rather unusual move, the Chinese PLA Air Force had pressed its indigenously developed stealth J-20 stealth fighters for patrol missions in the region. The J-20 started conducting combat patrols in the East China Sea and alert patrols in the South China Sea after it switched to domestically made engines.
(Smit Soni)