12:57 GMT, November 9, 2009 Since entering the new century, the airborne force of the Air Force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has got breakthrough in such key techniques as consecutive drop of small pieces, air drop of heavy equipment and mixed air drop of personnel and equipment, uplifting obviously the troops’capabilities of long-distance assault and emergent maneuver.

Equiped with such advanced equipment as parachute assault vehicle, parachute combat vehicle, self-propelled howitzer, self-propelled rocket launcher, anti-tank missile launching vehicle, serialized equipment specialized in parachuting, large and medium-sized transport aircraft, armed helicopter, transport helicopter, automatic command system?satellite positioning system and communication system, the structure of the airborne force of the PLA Air Force has developed from a single arm in the early days of its establishment into a high-tech combined force composed of 27 specialized arms including armored force, aviation force and special reconnaissance force, basically realizing the expansion of mobile operation in the air and assault operation on the ground.

In recent years, the airborne force often organized special trainings in complicated terrains under bad meteorological conditions by centering on raising the airborne combat capability. In 2004, the airborne force held a big-intensity and long-distance comprehensive confrontation exercise stretching over 20-plus counties and cities in China’s Central Plains, South China and Northeast China.


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Zhang Jinyu, Li Jianwen