PLA Air Force launches training campaign for its pilots

The PLA Air Force has launched a broad effort to improve its pilots' fighting skills amid a series of simmering territorial disputes around the country's airspace.

All air units from the People's Liberation Army's seven military commands simultaneously began a series of all-weather practice flights and live-fire drills before the start of the Lunar New Year holiday last month.

Details of the campaign, which follows Beijing's creation of a new air defence identification zone over disputed areas of the East China Sea, appeared in yesterday's PLA Daily, the military's official mouthpiece.

Li Jie , a researcher at the PLA Navy's Military Academy, said the training was motivated by the region's increasingly complex defence situation and improvements in the air force's hardware and weapons systems.

"Air force and naval aviation forces have been ordered to step up training because the PLA realises that China's future challenges will come from the sea and the air," Li said. "We did not focus on pilot training in the past because of a lack of advanced fighter jets and funding. But now the army has both."

The central government has poured money into the military in recent years. The official defence budget rose by nearly 11 per cent to 720 billion yuan (HK$914 billion) this year, although many military experts believe that actual spending is much higher.

The PLA Daily report listed the training campaign's seven key goals, including improving air combat preparation, revising training standards and improving safety precautions.