China revealed it conducted air and sea drills in the South China Sea as it increasingly asserts claim on virtually the whole sea despite rival claims by neighbours. The live-ammunition drills involved more than 100 ships, dozens of aircraft, information warfare units as well as the nuclear force, the state-backed China Military Online said in a report posted on the defense ministry's website. It did not specify where exactly the exercises took place.
The latest exercises focused on integrating information warfare systems with air and naval forces, as well as testing the combat effectiveness of new weapons and equipment, as per China Military Online. The military achieved “new breakthroughs” in several areas including engaging high-speed low-altitude targets, anti-submarine warfare and intercepting supersonic anti-ship missiles with surface warships, it added.
The drills used “all sorts of information technology tactics” to create simulated reconnaissance, surveillance, and early warning systems to detect air and sea targets in real time, it said, and the exercises were conducted in “a complex electromagnetic environment” involving many types of missiles, torpedoes, shells and bombs, it said.
China claims most of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year,rejecting the rival claims of Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. Eventhough the United States has called on claimants to settle differences through talks and has said its Pacific Fleet aims to protect sea lanes critical to US trade with Southeast Asia and the oil-rich Middle East, the Asian country culls US involvement in the dispute.
Its more assertive approach recently, which includes land reclamation and construction on disputed reefs, has raised global tension.
