"Target is heading toward us while hedgehopping above the sea. It's approaching the limit for attack…" During a multi-service confrontational exercise conducted by the PLA Hong Kong Garrison troops at midnight of a summer day, an incoming "enemy plane" was captured by radar.
"Three missiles, fire in sequence!" Following the order given by Wang Haixu, commander of an air defense battalion in a regiment of the PLA HK Garrison, the missiles hit the target precisely.
Wang Haixu is also a deputy to the 20th CPC National Congress.
Eighteen years ago, when Wang was still in college, he was inspired by the recruitment posters and suspended his study to join the PLA. Later he joined the CPC during service and passed the military academy entrance examinations organized by the military for soldiers in active service and was admitted by the Air Force Engineering University.
When serving at a ground-to-air missile brigade of the PLA Air Force, he participated in a number of major training exercises, and was promoted from platoon leader to deputy company commander and then to company commander. At the end of 2019, he was appointed head of the air defense battalion in a regiment of the PLA HK Garrison after rounds of selections and assessments.
"As a battalion commander, it is my duty to lead the whole unit to become more competent at fulfilling tasks and make sure whenever we are called upon, we'd be able to act quickly, shoot precisely, and safeguard HK's air defense security," said Wang.
In the autumn of 2020, when leading the battalion to carry out an exercise in a sea area, Wang and his men came cross a headache -- the radar screen was full of snowflakes under the influence of sea clutter.
As Hong Kong is surrounded by sea on three sides, the air defense radar would easily lose target under the influence of strong sea clutter."Searching and identifying the target was like looking for a needle in a haystack," said the radar technician Zhang Yanrui. Wang led several technical backbones to form a research team to tackle the problem. They collected data, analyzed waveforms, and study the patterns at the seaside position every day.
Having compared and analyzed thousands of data sets, they began to discern patterns in the originally chaotic radar noise map, and the effects exerted by sea clutter on the gun-projectile system were removed one by one. During the simulated ground-to-air confrontation drill, Wang and his men accurately identified the air targets in their defense area, and got the highest score of all 9 participating units.
Over the years, Wang Haixu has taken the lead in making innovations of operational tactics and made 76 inventions. Three new tactics, including the air defense tactics against sea clutter in coastal areas, were conferred the innovation awards by the superior. Since stationed in HK three years ago, Wang has led the air defense battalion to participate in live-fire exercises multiple times with all their missiles hitting the target, breaking the live-fire shooting record of a certain type of weapon system. He has personally been honored with a second-class merit citation and a third-class merit citation, and his battalion a third-class collective merit citation.
"To achieve the centenary objectives of the PLA, I will earnestly fulfill my duties as a deputy to the 20th CPC National Congress, dedicate myself to the military training and war preparedness, and perform well the defense mission in Hong Kong entrusted by the Party and the people," said Wang.
