Chinese fighters' pyrotechnic performance during Russia – China war games

An interesting fleet review of the Russia-China joint naval exercise in the Yellow Sea took place on Apr. 26. Chinese and Russian warships, warplanes took part in the final event of the drills that included also live ammunition firing.

The war games (dubbed “Joint Naval Drill 2012”) seem to be a Moscow and Beijing response to the U.S. naval build-up in the area, where the Chinese and Russians have also to face two US close allies: Japan and South Korea.

Japanese and South Korean surveillance and intelligence gathering planes were frequently spotted shadowing the Russian convoy as it cruised from Vladivostok to the naval base near Qingdao, n the south of China.

Among the warplanes that performed the flyover of the fleet, there were also some People’s Liberation Army Navy Xian JH-7s and J-11s that made abundant use of flares, as the following image, published by Xinhua News Agency show.

Image credit: Xinhua/Zha Chunming

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.