By Sun Xingwei and Liu Jianhui
BEIJING, Jan. 17 -- An army brigade of the PLA Eastern Theater Command included the self-heating personal field food rations support as a training subject in a recent tactical drill, in order to improve the troops’ food adaptability in field operations.
According to an official in the Military Supplies & Energy Bureau of the CMC’s Logistic Support Department, the PLA has stepped up efforts to enhance its field fast food rations support capability in recent years, with relevant policy refined, standards for portable supplies revised, and the military food rations of various types specified.
It is learned that the new types of field military food rations are categorized by energy level featuring a rich menu and multi-domain application. Field provision equipment units are applicable for various situations, no matter it is to support companies or platoons, cook staple food or non-staple food, and be used on plateau or plain. Except from adding an energy-saving module, the fridge set for field food rations has also become more integrated and more portable.
Personal food rations are reduced in size but augmented in energy compared with previous instant food, enabling the troops to better resist fatigue in extremely harsh environments. Reheating food in large quantities takes less time than processing fresh and raw ingredients. Ships are also able to preserve vegetables for much longer time by optimizing food combinations.
Next, the PLA will accelerate the iteration of military food rations and equipment, explore more ways to guarantee food supply for training on frigid plateau regions and for long-distance maritime or flight operations, and further improve the fast military food rations support system.