Air Force launches military-civilian joint air projection

An air projection for plateau camping training conducted by the Air Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) was unveiled at 05:00 on May 29, 2012 at an airport in the hinterland of central China. A total of 5 military and civil airplanes were mobilized for this air projection mission from the hinterland of central China to the snow-covered plateau.

The wheeled equipment including command vehicles, communication vehicles and field ambulances were slowly moving into the cabin of a transport aircraft. At the same time, 10-odd aviation containers were pushed along a slide way into the cabin of another transport aircraft to be locked and fixed.

On the other side of the apron, the fully-armed airborne troops quickly boarded a civil passenger plane in 3 echelons under the guidance of the local flight attendants.

At 07:00, the military and civil transport airplanes fully loaded with airborne troops and equipment took off in turn. On the plane, a person in charge of the Logistics Department of the PLA Air Force said that the PLA started air transport of recruits to the plateau with the help of civil aviation transport strength since 1987, greatly upgrading PLA's strategic projection capability. This plateau camping training will further temper the remote-mobile-combat capability of the airborne troops.

At 11:50, the airplanes smoothly landed at an airport on the plateau.