Review of Chinese Navy's escort missions in Gulf of Aden

December 26 of 2012 marks the 4th anniversary of escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the Somali coast carried out by the taskforces of the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).

On this day four years ago, the 1st Chinese naval escort taskforce sailed from Sanya of south China's Hainan province to the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the Somali coast 4,400 nautical miles away to conduct escort mission, marking the beginning of rotated and normalized escort of the PLA Navy.

Highlighting China's role as a great power

At the beginning of the escort missions, the Chinese government made a solemn commitment: welcome to join the Chinese naval escort taskforce, which will provide free escort for all foreign ships to join the taskforce.

In the past four years, the PLA Navy has dispatched 13 escort taskforces to the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the Somali coast successively, totaling 34 warships, 28 helicopters and 10,000-odd officers and men. Up to now, the 13 escort taskforces have wrapped up 500-plus escort missions for 5,000-odd Chinese and foreign merchant ships, and successfully met and escorted, rescued and salvaged over 60 ships.

"The escort in the Gulf of Aden provided by the Chinese naval taskforce is a strong support in cracking down Somali piracies for the international community, which reflects China's important role in international affairs," said Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the United Nations.

Displaying new image of Chinese Navy

In the past four years, the Chinese naval escort taskforces have been keeping informing the outside the information they owned on the activities of suspicious ships through network mailbox and radio station every day and shared information resources with 50-odd warships of 20-plus countries and organizations. Besides, the taskforces have also actively carried out extensive and in-depth cooperation and exchanges with escort forces of various countries,

On September 10, 2009, the Chinese and Russian naval escort taskforces conducted a joint escort mission, during which they carried out exchanges and cooperation on command, communication, special situation handling, etc.

On May 13, 2012, the Chinese and South Korean naval escort taskforces organized a joint military drill during which helicopters of the two sides landed on each other's warships for the first time.

Since the 2nd Chinese naval escort taskforce, the Chinese Navy has established a new mechanism of organizing escort warships to pay friendly visits to foreign countries, and the Chinese naval escort taskforces have successfully paid friendly visits to more than 20 countries, such as India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore.

David Sedney, deputy assistant secretary of defense of the United States, once commented, "The Chinese naval escort taskforce exerts a lot of influences in the waters off the Somali coast. The Chinese naval sailors are in command of amazing tactics and in close cooperation with the navies of other countries including the U.S."

Tempering first-rate military capabilities

"During our escort missions in the Gulf of Aden, we may meet enemies at any time, and so we should be combat-ready at all times." This is the common feeling of all escort officers and men.

Through the "grindstone" of escort missions in the past four years, the PLA Navy has tempered its capabilities for using, organizing, commanding and projecting military forces, and carrying out tasks in open seas in an all-round way, and fully improved its capability for performing diversified military missions.