Chinese military to join ‘unprecedented’ Russian joint exercises for first time

China’s military will for the first time participate with Russia in massive joint exercises that are expected to be the largest war games since the fall of the Soviet Union as the U.S. rivals look to showcase their deepening ties.

The annual Vostok military drills will kick off late this month and run through mid-September, the Chinese Defense Ministry announced Monday. Military forces from the two countries will hold joint exercises at the Tsugol training range in Russia’s Trans-Baikal region, near where the borders of Russia, China and eastern Mongolia meet, from Sept. 11 to 15, the ministry added.

Power Politics: China, Russia, and Peace Mission 2005
Publication: China Brief Volume: 5 Issue: 20
By: Martin Andrew
September 27, 2005 04:00 AM Age: 13 years

From August 18–25 elements of the Chinese and Russian armed forces conducted an eight-day joint exercise with the stated aim to strengthen “the capability of the two armed forces to jointly fight international terrorism, extremism and separatism.” The exercise, dubbed Peace Mission 2005, was nothing of the sort. The naval power and operation on display were patently unrealistic against a terrorist organization, but quite suitable for operations against a regional naval power. Indeed, the exercise was old fashioned power politics at work, aimed squarely at the governments in Pyongyang and Tokyo, to pressure North Korea to go back to the six party nuclear talks and Japan over its border claim to the Kurils. A recent breakthrough in Beijing in the six-party talks last week may in fact attest to the former.

The eight-day joint exercise was split into three phases and involved nearly 10,000 troops, with approximately 1,800 from Russia. It started in the Russian city of Vladivostok and concluded in Weifang, located in China’s Shandong Province. The first phase involved the respective military forces’ staff officers conducting strategic consultations and battle planning. The second and third operational phases involved a one-day offshore blockade, followed by an amphibious landing with a concurrent airborne assault—both nothing more than elaborate displays of firepower. These were carried out in the seas off Shandong and on the Weifang live-fire range. As it was nominally an exercise by the two senior members of the SCO, observers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan attended, as did observers from Iran, India and Pakistan—countries granted observer status in the SCO this past summer.

As expected from a first-time exercise between countries with only three months of planning, it was stage-managed from start to finish. It was primarily a Chinese firepower demonstration exercise with Russian support, and combined two major, regular training exercises that both China and Russia normally hold separately. Under the auspices of the SCO, China has held a joint counter-terrorist exercise around August with a neighbor since 2003. The Russians were able to give their annual strategic exercise an extra twist by navigating their Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 bombers over a different route. The Russians used four Tu-22M3 strategic bombers and two Tu-95MS on a conventional strike mission to soften up the defenses before the amphibious landing. Using the Tu-95MS is intriguing—it is a cruise missile carrier ill-suited to the conventional bombing role in comparison to the Tu-23M3—but the crews would have had the opportunity to carry out mock cruise missile attacks against possible targets in Northeast Asia. It would be interesting to know if China gave them a rigid flight plan over its airspace so as to not compromise sensitive installations.

The Chinese forces had arrived in the area in late June and began their individual practices in mid-July. Russian troops arrived on August 9 and conducted joint training in three training areas in the Shandong peninsula and its nearby seawaters from August 14–16. The Russians provided the bulk of the high technology and larger items of military equipment. Russian aircraft, in addition to the Tu95MS and Tu22M3, included Il-76 military freighters, an Il-78 aerial refueling tanker, A-50 AEW&C, Su-24M2 strike aircraft, and Su-27SM fighters. Russian naval vessels included the Udaloy-class anti-submarine destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov; the Sovremenney guided-missile destroyer Burny; a large landing ship; a rescue tugboat; and a logistics support vessel. Russian ground combat assets included a company from the 55th Marine Corps Division with their BTR-80 wheeled fighting vehicles, and a reinforced parachute company of the 76th Division of the Airborne Forces with their BMD airborne combat vehicles. The Chinese forces used many of the new items in their inventory including Su-27 fighters, Il-76 freighters, Z-9G armed helicopters, ZTZ-96 main battle tanks, ZLS92 series wheeled light armored fighting vehicles, ZTS63A amphibious tanks, and six of their new ZSL2000 airborne fighting vehicles. The PLAN provided three destroyers: the Type 052 class multi-role destroyer Harbin, the Type 052C air-defense destroyer Guangzhou, and three frigates including a Jianghu-class frigate converted into an inshore fire support vessel.

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