The Poseidon 2014 actual-troop maritime operation support exercise, conducted by the East China Sea Fleet of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), has started along the dockside of Zhoushan naval port in east China’s Zhejiang province.
The three-day exercise involves crew from operational support vessels, destroyers, frigates, local law-enforcement vessels and helicopters and submarines, spanning a range of armed services and local forces in the air, sea and underwater, according to Ecns.cn.
Furthermore, the participating troops will be divided into five groups, including search and supply, tactical reconnaissance, sweeping survey group for channel opening and a submarine rescue and lifesaving group.
The exercise has been themed towards nine original-combat subjects, including support for maritime law-enforcement forces to execute right-protection and law-enforcement missions, military and local joint-target verification, military and local joint rescue, military and local joint maritime emergency channel opening and wrecked submarine rescue.
Earlier this month, China carried out bilateral naval exercises with the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), which involved a range of shore-based and at-sea training events targeted at dealing with shared maritime security priorities, while bolstering interoperability.
As part of efforts to bolster its missile defence, China recently rolled out the new HongQi-10 surface-to-air missile system, which is claimed to be capable of reducing the risk from low-altitude anti-ship missiles and aircraft.
