China-Malaysia joint military exercise maritime subjects in full swing

Chinese and Malaysian armed forces launch joint military exercise, coded "Peace and Friendship 2015", in the Malacca Strait, Sept 20, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

ABOARD LANZHOU WARSHIP - The maritime subjects of the China-Malaysia joint military exercise was carried out Sunday in full swing in the designated waters in the Strait of Malacca.

The armed forces from the two sides conducted the subjects of hijacked vessel rescue, weapons use and joint search and rescue.

In the exercise for the hijacked vessel rescue, the hijacked vessel was searched and positioned by three fixed-wing aircraft from the two sides flying to the incident waters. Then the naval ships arrived at the incident waters, with the air assault team members successfully rappelled onto the hijacked vessel from three shipborne helicopters. At the same time, four maritime assault teams rapidly climbed onto the vessel from its two sides, and searched the deck and cabin of the hijacked vessel. Several " pirates" were nabbed in the operation.

Zhao Chengjin, leader of the maritime assault teams and a Chinese special operation team member, said that the exercise gave a good opportunity for the special operation team members from the two countries to communicate with each other, and the two sides made great coordination in the operation.

In the exercise for the weapons use, Four vessels form the two sides formed a shooting team and shot at the floating targets in turn. All the missions were accomplished successfully.

The background of the joint search and rescue exercise is that a "commercial ship" was crashed and capsized after the water getting in it. Some crew members were injured and fell into the water, while the rest of the crews jumped into the water to escape.

After receiving the order, four aircraft from the two sides firstly carried out joint search and verification and located the "commercial ship." Then the maritime vessels rapidly arrived at the incident waters and make search and rescue plan. The Chinese navy hospital ship set sail at the same time to prepare for receiving wounded personnel.

The wounded personnel were rescued and transferred to the Chinese hospital ship by a Chinese hospital helicopter and a Malaysian shipborne helicopter. At the same time, the participating vessels dropped small boats to carry out rescue operation on the surface of the water...An hour later, all the wounded personnel were rescued and transferred to the Chinese hospital ship.

Sunday's joint search and rescue exercise concluded successfully at 17:30 local time which marked the end of all the maritime subjects of the joint military exercise.