China to send strategic bombers, fighter jets for war games in Russia

H-6Ks – used for patrols around South China Sea and Taiwan Strait – among Chinese aircraft taking part in international drills this month

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A J-10A fighter jet prepares for the International Army Games in eastern China on Wednesday. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:18pm, 13 Jul 2018Updated: 11:36pm, 10 Dec 2019

China’s air force will send strategic bombers, fighter jets and transport aircraft to take part in war games in Russia this month, as Beijing tries to boost defence ties with Moscow.

Among the Chinese military aircraft at the International Army Games on July 28 will be H-6K bombers, which have carried out patrols around the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.

Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Iran will also join the exercises.

It is the first time the strategic bombers and Y-9 transport aircraft, which has a range of around 7,800km, will participate in overseas war games, a spokesman for the PLA Air Force said on Thursday.

The H-6K bombers – with 1,600km air-launched cruise missiles and reportedly a combat range of 3,500km – conducted take-off and landing drills over the South China Sea in May, which Washington said would “raise tensions and destabilise the region”.

It came after the US Air Force flew B-52 bombers in the “vicinity” of the South China Sea in late April.

The bombers have also been deployed for encirclement exercises around Taiwan in a move seen as sending a warning to the pro-independence groups of the self-ruled island.

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