On August 15, the “Stride 2009.Luzhai” military exercise officially kicked off in a division under the Jinan Military Area Command. In light of the preplan, an armored regiment had the combat vehicles loaded onto the military train in an orderly way in less than 40 minutes and the train set off for the predetermined destination on time.

Recently, the reporter learned from the symposium on “Retrospect and Prospect of Armored Equipment over the Past 50 Years” organized by a research institute of the General Armaments Department of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that the PLA has established a complete system of armored equipment which can meet the demands of various battlefields. China has been among the most advanced nations in the world in its overall level of armored equipment.

In the military parade in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China held in Beijing, 8 armored equipment formations of the third-generation main battle tanks, infantry combat vehicles, amphibious assault vehicles and parachute combat vehicles rumbled through the Tian’anmen Square, displaying the marvelous achievements obtained by the PLA in the development of armored equipment over the past 50 years as reflected in the evolution from copying and modifying imported equipment to independent research and development, from possessing a single-type of equipment to building up a system of armored equipment characterising the compound development of both mechanization and informationization.

In recent years, the PLA has been accelerating the process of compound development of armored equipment in terms of both informationization and mechanization. Advanced electronic information technology is extensively applied in the new-type combat vehicles, which has notably uplifted the overall combat capability of the troops.

In the year of 2009, the advanced armored vehicles took part in some major military actions including the “Stride 2009” military exercise and the “Peace Mission 2009” Sino-Russian joint anti-terrorism military exercise.

PLA Daily
22.01.2010