Days ago, officers and men of a machine gun company of the Nanjing Military Area Command endured "untold sufferings" in a training amidst the continuous drizzling rain in a mountainous area in eastern Fujian Province. First, they were ordered to make a 5-kilometer-long raid to swoop down on a target of the "Blue Army", but they failed to find the said target when they reached there. Later, when they pitched their tents, ready to settle down, two of their tents were destroyed by mines laid by the "Blue Army". Finally, hardly had their cooks started cooking before they were captured by the "Blue Army".
In order to boost the fighting capacity of its troops, this regiment selected one top-notch training personnel from each battalion to form a powerful "Blue Army "squad and designated the 9th Company, which had high military quality to be the "Blue Army" company. The regiment regularly organizes its troops into "Red Army" and "Blue Army" to conduct battalion-level and company-level confrontational exercises and lets them freely pitch against each other.
Such close-to-real-combat confrontation training has not only laid a strong foundation for both individual training and element tactical training, but also honed the skills of combatants and commanders in handling combat situation according to circumstances. Through confrontation exercises, the regiment has worked out a series of new fighting methods for urban area operations, operation in mountainous areas, airborne operation and so on, thus it has greatly improved fighting powers of its troops.
By Gao Minghua and Zheng Zhe
(May 13, PLA Daily)
