China’s military sends in junior air force pilots to tackle rise in US spying missions
- Fresh graduates are being put through intensive training programmes and deployed on combat patrols, CCTV says
- Pilots are acting with restraint to avoid confrontation becoming conflict, analyst says
Junior pilots have been sent on the patrols in the East and South China seas to expel foreign jets as little as a month after completing fighter pilot training, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday.
The CCTV report said almost all the PLA Air Force’s graduates completed a training course to become fighter pilots, learning how to deal with the growing threat of close-in reconnaissance by foreign aircraft.
Without giving details about the foreign aircraft, it said the intensive training programme pushed junior pilots to master practical air confrontation skills and countermeasures within a short time.
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Chinese fighter jet almost collides with US military plane over South China Sea
Song Zihao, a 24-year-old J-16 fighter-bomber pilot, told CCTV that he was ordered into frontline action just one month after completing the postgraduate training.