NINGXIA, Aug. 5 -- The China-Russian joint exercise Zapad/Interaction-2021, a strategic military training exercise, will be launched in the Qingtongxia Joint Tactical Training Base in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from August 9 to 13 as scheduled. During the last three days, the arriving Russian participating troops tried out the Chinese PLA’s armored vehicles for the first time.
Since their arrival, the Russian participating troops have been engaged in equipment run-in and personnel exchange with their Chinese counterparts. At present, they are speeding up familiarization with the site set-up and drill process. They have tried out the Type-11 assault vehicles and Type-08 wheeled IFVs, the first time for the Russian troops to use China’s weapons and equipment in formed unit.
It is learnt that the Chinese side has compiled an equipment operation manual in Russian, filmed instructional videos, and applied various assistant facilities such as driving simulator, shooting simulator, and analog radio, to help the Russian participating troops familiarize themselves with the weapons and equipment involved as soon as possible.
Taking counter-terrorism and stability maintenance as the mission scenario, the “Zapad/Interaction-2021” joint exercise will see Chinese and Russian troops jointly carrying out strikes against terrorist forces in mixed groups. The special operations forces of both sides will complete the task of seizing the high ground and trench in accordance with the pre-plan, and then carry out the task of penetrating the enemy in depth.
The participating troops involved mainly come from the Chinese PLA Western Theater Command and Russia’s Eastern Military District, with a total of more than 10,000 military personnel and multiple types of aircraft, artillery and armored equipment.
In recent years, the Chinese and Russian armed forces have tried out each other's equipment in joint exercises with the ever-growing strategic mutual trust of the two militaries. Both sides’ troops have enhanced friendship, improved tacit understanding and common capabilities to fight side by side during the process of joint training.
