CHINA COMMANDS HELICOPTERS TO BE READY FOR COMBAT
Amid rising tensions with Japan over the disputed islands, Chinese army in a bid to scale up battle readiness has ordered armed helicopters to shift focus from logistics missions and gear up for combat operations.The People Liberation Army (PLA) planned to change the strategy of its army aviation unit as more and more armed helicopters joined the service, PLA Daily which is the official newspaper of the military quoted by army aviation.
The focus of army aviation unit will be shifted from logistics missions to combat ones, from building capacity for non-war military actions to core military actions.
The unit will work on major missions such as long distance tasks, large scale off-shore operations, attack coordination with other units and large scale airborne operations and that unit will also aim to improve its operation capability based on IT.
Both China and Japan have scaled up military operations after the escalation of the dispute over the islands called Diaoyu by China, Senkakus by Japan.
The PLA move comes in the backdrop of recent military drills conducted by Japanese army helicopters to defend the islands.
Chinese military exercises in recent months involving ships and aircraft focused on taking the islands and retaining them.
While naval ships of both the countries patrolled the waters of the islands, the two also scrambled aircraft earlier to intercept surveillance planes.
Conflict over the islands escalated after Japan, which retained the administrative control over the islands, bought them from a private party.
Objecting to the move, China sent its ships into the island waters.
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