The 24th Chinese naval escort fleet has conducted in the past consecutive days maritime drills of multiple subjects en route to Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia for escort mission since the fleet departed from Qingdao on August 10.
During the drill of rescuing a hijacked merchant ship by force on Monday morning, the guided-missile destroyer Harbin (Hull No. 112) and the guided-missile frigate Handan (Hull No. 579) maneuvered at high speed toward the target water where the “hijacking” happened.
At the same time, the two warships established communication with the “hijacked merchant ship” impersonated by the supply ship Dongpinghu (Hull No. 883) and obtained information about the crew and pirates.
In the 2-hour-plus drill, the escort fleet conducted operations of more than 10 subjects including anti-piracy deployments, maritime patrol flight, reconnaissance and guidance flight and so on.
Conducting such maritime training which is close to escort mission is designed to improve the commanding officers’ operational commanding capabilities at all levels, and the troops’ capability of dealing with various situations, fast responding and carrying out special operations, said Bai Yaoping, commanding officer of the escort fleet.
