Russian and Chinese combat ships repelled a notional enemy’s air attack during a joint naval patrol in Pacific waters, the press office of the Russian Pacific Fleet reported on Thursday.
“During an air defense exercise, the crews of ships of the Russian Navy and the Navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army practiced the algorithms of repelling a notional enemy’s air attack from various altitudes and directions. Naval aviation aircraft simulated the enemy force attacking the joint naval group,” the press office said in a statement, TASS reported.
Il-38 anti-submarine warfare aircraft of the Pacific Fleet’s naval aviation and aircraft of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army operated in close interaction with the crews of the combat ships at various stages of the joint naval patrol. The crews of the Russian and Chinese warships also honed the skills of hunting down and tracking the simulated enemy’s submarines and also practiced joint rescue operations at sea, it said.
“Ka-27 deck-based helicopters of the Pacific Fleet’s naval aviation carried out take-offs and landings on the Chinese combat ships. In turn, Chinese helicopters landed on and took off from the Russian warships,” the statement reads.
The Russian-Chinese joint naval group keeps sailing along the route agreed by the parties. The crews of the warships have already traversed the Sea of Japan, the La Perouse Strait, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Kamchatka Strait and the Bering Sea. Currently, the joint naval task force is operating in the Pacific waters, having covered a distance of over 4,000 nautical miles since the start of the naval patrol, the press office added.
