Chinese army holds "Vanguard-206B" drill in E. China

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk (at) c4i.org>

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-11/19/content_5349105.htm

By Nie Peng
Xinhua News Agency
2006-11-19 

JINAN, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA)  
concluded a military exercise on Sunday in the coast of China's eastern 
Shandong Province with an aim to assess the army's information warfare 
capabilities.

More than 8,000 personnel including the land force air unit, electronic 
warfare troop, artillery troop and special troop took part in the drill.

"The 12-day drill, dubbed "Vanguard-206B", aims to root out any problems 
that exist among Chinese troops by exposing them to the most difficult 
electromagnetic environment," said Commander Fan Changlong of the Jinan 
Military Area Command, also the chief director of the drill.

"These troops will take on important battle tasks in future so it is 
essential to examine their techniques," he said.

"The application of information technology is the main purpose of this 
drill," said Zeng Weihua, member of the directing team, calling the 
electromagnetic environment the fifth dimension of warfare and the basis 
of military actions in modern times.

"We want the troops participating in the drill to know that defeat in 
information techniques means defeat in actual combat," he said.

Although he admitted several strikes, both air and ground, missed their 
targets, Chen Wenrong, head of the combat force, said Vanguard-206B was 
"the most important and the most successful drill"  he had ever attended 
as a senior military official.

"The primary goal of a war game is to identify the problems," Chen said.

Bombarded roads, phony electronic signals, surprise attacks on 
commanders' headquarters were all carefully designed to complicate the 
combat conditions, military officials said.

China has intensified the number of military drills in recent years, 
especially with the neighboring countries of the Shanghai Cooperation 
Organization (SCO), a regional organization established in June 2001 
comprising China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and 
Uzbekistan.

In August 2005, China and Russia held a high-profile joint war game 
codenamed "Peaceful Mission - 2005", which involved 10,000 troops from 
the two countries.



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