Bearing the future war in mind, Cao Jinfu, director of the Armaments Department of the Artillery Division of a reserve force in Hebei has made dynamic efforts in technical innovation, which has moved and encouraged the officers and men a great deal. Two of the 48 technical innovation and scientific research results by him, i.e. the field battle automatic command system and field battle rush repair van, won national invention patents, and 38 won Military Scientific and Technological Progress Awards, 2 of which have already entered service. As a result, he has won the title of merit citations 9 times and been awarded by authorities above provincial military command for 21 times.

　　Cao Jinfu has always kept his eyes on the future war while making efforts in technical innovation in order to upgrade the armament in the armed forces. Once when a type of anti-tank missile simulation drilling equipment was handed over to the troops, Cao found the simulation equipment has technical defect in telling correct time, which handicapped the training and, worse still, caused great errors. Cao thought, how could such kind of training equipment help to train qualified troops for the future war? Together with the officers and men of the armaments department Cao decided to do something about it and was determined to develop a set of automatic timing equipment. He consulted more than 20 special materials such as "Digital Circuit", "Automatic Control Circuit" and discussed with related experts on different designs. After over 30 repeated tests, he succeeded in developing the automatic time device matching the simulated drilling equipment and solved the original technical defect. Facing the challenge of the new demand on weapons and equipment for leap-forward development and basing on the present situation of the reserve force, Cao Jinfu, together with officers and men from the troubleshooting team has developed over 10 kinds of battle equipment and drilling support facilities under field battle conditions such as field battle command vehicle, field battle rush repair van, field battle automatic command system.

　　Cao Jinfu's　sustained pursuit for technical innovation is for the purpose of upgrading the battle effectiveness. Once in a flame throwing exercise, Cao found that it's difficult to prepare the oil material and it takes a long time and great efforts for the officers and men to do it. Cao soon came out with the new idea of airflow mixing and pressure heating, which solved the problem and the material-preparation time was reduced from the original 40 minutes to 5 minutes, the maturing time dropped to less than 2 hours from 3 to 7 days, the required labor force also fell from 4 people to only one person. It cost the armament department 10 years from the R & D to production and this innovation went through 4 transformations. But Cao has always been full of enthusiasm. Hao Tinggui, the anti-chemical weapon expert said: "Cao Jinfu has solved the oil preparation difficulty which has not been solved for many years and has contributed a lot to anti-chemical troops." The innovation result and the "backpacker-styled tent" have been adopted as part of the military equipment for the PLA by the General Armaments Department of the PLA.

　　By Li Yonglong and Li Jianzhou

　　(December 8, PLA Daily)