Task and Purpose:
The drills were reported by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP), which cited an article in the People’s Liberation Army Daily, the Chinese military’s official newspaper. The drills simulated defeating an aerial attack, the SCMP said, and including “three target drones making flyovers of a ship formation at varying heights and directions.”
The PLA Daily report said that the drones were used to “precisely verify the feasibility and effectiveness to ensure a close stimulation of an aerial attack target.” The Chinese military’s paper added that drones had been used during exercises at least thirty times before. As the SCMP pointed out, the Chinese military didn’t release many details about the drills, including the precise timing, location or what Chinese Navy ships participated.
As others have noted, these anti-air drills come on the heels of two U.S. B-52 bombers challenging China’s claims of sovereignty over artificial islands it built in the South China Sea. On June 5, two B-52 bombers—which, unlike the B-1, are nuclear capable—flew within twenty miles of the Spratly Islands, according to CNN.
