Latest military technologies help quake rescue

 The latest development of military technologies, including a satellite navigation system and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), has helped China carry out more efficient rescue and relief efforts after Saturday's strong earthquake.

At the field headquarters of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Chengdu Military Area Command (MAC) set up for quake rescue and relief, many important deployments have been made based on latest pictures of the quake-hit areas taken by satellites, drones and reconnaissance aircrafts.

"From these high resolution pictures taken from the air, we can tell where there are landslides, which roads are blocked and which parts are damaged most," said Zhou Xiaozhou, head of the rescue headquarters of Chengdu MAC.

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake, which jolted southwest China's Sichuan Province on Saturday morning, has left 193 dead, 25 missing and 12,211 injured as of 6 a.m. Tuesday.

So far the rescue and relief teams have responded quickly mainly because the country has established an aerial intelligence network covering a large area and collecting precise information in an efficient way, Zhou said.

According to Zhou, shortly after the quake, the PLA Navy sent out its remote sensing aircrafts from the base in Sichuan to find out the situation of Lushan County, the quake epicenter and a remote mountainous region.

In the meantime, the PLA Air Force mobilized its helicopters and reconnaissance aircrafts to update the situation of the quake-hit areas and guide rescuers on land.

To acquire more geographic information of the quake-hit area and the disaster's damage, the National Defense Bureau of Science, Technology and Industry initiated an emergency space mission to collect remote sensing data of the quake-hit area by using five satellites flying over on Saturday.

In lower airspace, the quake-relief troops have used UAVs to map small-size or narrow locations in the quake zone where manned reconnaissance aircraft could hardly reach.

In most parts of Lushan, the strong quake damaged communication, transport and power supply facilities, adding difficulties for the rescue force who had to trek through narrow mountain roads and under the threat of landslides.

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has enabled land rescuers to communicate among each other and with the headquarters, said Lang Anwu, chief of staff of an artillery regiment under the 13th Combined Corps of PLA Army, which has engaged in the rescue mission in Lushan.

The BDS is China's homegrown satellite navigation system. The country has already sent 16 satellites to space for the system and the BDS is expected to cover the globe with a constellation of over 30 satellites by around 2020.