Guided by Xi Jinping's Thought on Strengthening the Military · Establishing and Practicing a Correct Outlook on Performance Achievements | The New Flight Track of the "Sea-Sky Eagles"
The New Flight Track of the "Sea-Sky Eagles"
— An Investigative Report from a Division of the Eastern Theater Command Naval Aviation
■ Zhang Desheng, Hao Yongfei, PLA Daily Reporter Hou Yongbo
Combat aircraft of the division take off. Photo by Zhou Chunze.
At an airfield in East China, the morning sun has just risen. A long-duration, day-night continuous flight training exercise conducted by a division of the Eastern Theater Command Naval Aviation has just concluded, and a debrief immediately gets underway in the control tower rest room.
"The ability to fight and win is a soldier's greatest real achievement. No matter how lively peacetime training looks or how impressive the spectacle, if it cannot withstand the test of actual combat, that is a deviation in one's outlook on performance achievements (政绩观)." The division commander's words landed with force. "Faced with the accelerating transformation of military training, we must be willing to shoulder the heaviest burdens and capable of gnawing on the hardest bones, work hard to crack training problems, continuously consolidate the foundation for victory, and ensure the force can be summoned at a moment's notice, fight upon arrival, and win every battle."
This clarity of mind and thinking stems from the division Party committee leadership's deep understanding that "achievements are earned through hard work, and only genuine effort produces genuine achievements and real results." In recent years, the division's officers and soldiers have firmly established combat effectiveness as the one and only fundamental standard, worked hard with a fighting spirit and soared toward war, continuously improved their ability to win, and striven to forge the force into a sharp sword of sea and air power that defeats the enemy.
The "Additions" and "Subtractions" in Flight Subjects——
What is added is the confidence to handle complex emergencies; what is subtracted is the impressive-looking but useless empty formalism (虚功)
At the end of last year, after a revised phased training schedule was published, it caused no small stir among the division's officers and soldiers.
Everyone noticed that the proportion of combat-realistic subjects in the training schedule had increased substantially, while the proportion of conventional subjects had decreased correspondingly. Behind this one "addition" and one "subtraction" was reflected a "breaking" and "establishing" in the division's officers and soldiers' conception of training.
A veteran pilot, after reviewing the training schedule, said frankly: "The scope of adjustment in this training plan is genuinely significant." For a period of time in the past, although the division had emphasized combat-realistic training (实战化训练), in the specific training arrangements it leaned more toward steady and orderly progression. This appeared to hold the line on safety, but in reality was not conducive to the growth of the force's combat effectiveness.
Being responsible for combat effectiveness is the fundamental reason driving the shift in training orientation. The division Party committee decided to start by reforming the training schedule, cutting many subjects that lacked combat realism and adversarial character, and increasing the proportion of training in late-night flying, low-visibility takeoffs and landings, and low-altitude tactical maneuvering.
Once this reform was made, problems quickly emerged. A flight battalion of the division organized complex-weather takeoff and landing training, and deviations during landing were significant. As word spread, training safety became a focal concern for some officers and soldiers.
"This stems from the 'front sight' of the outlook on performance achievements not being aligned with the 'target center' of actual combat." At a combat and training deliberation meeting (议战议训会), a division leader recounted a personal experience. During a joint exercise, their side was responsible for command and guidance tasks when they suddenly encountered complex weather. After repeated deliberation, the commander cancelled the guidance phase. The friendly ground force, lacking effective situational updates, was forced to delay its operational progress.
"If at that moment we had overcome the complex weather problem and persisted with command and guidance, would the battle situation have been different?" This leader's question prompted deep reflection among everyone. As the discussion deepened, a consensus emerged: the so-called "prudent cancellation" was in fact the work of a fear-of-difficulty mentality; the so-called "safety baseline" cannot become a "shield" for evading the risks of combat-realistic training.
To fill capability gaps, meteorology, maintenance, and other specialties broke down barriers and formed a joint problem-solving group. Meteorological personnel made advance assessments of weather conditions to provide precise forecasts for flight operations; maintenance personnel conducted specialized calibration of aircraft sensors for high-humidity, low-visibility environments to ensure "zero error" in data transmission; pilots used simulators to repeatedly hone their emergency-situation handling capabilities...
During a flight training exercise not long ago, one aircraft encountered a complex weather emergency. The pilot responded calmly using the emergency handling methods practiced in routine training and returned safely.
The additions and subtractions on a training schedule reflect a transformation in the outlook on performance achievements. "In the past, some units habitually calculated the 'safety account' first when making plans, making selective choices about training subjects. This approach was in fact irresponsible toward combat effectiveness." The division leadership told reporters: vigorously rectifying the erroneous mindset of "emphasizing form over substance, emphasizing safety over training," and truly establishing the combat effectiveness standard—that is the correct outlook on performance achievements.
Now, a new training cycle has begun, and another batch of high-risk and difficult subjects has been placed on the training schedule. Everyone understands clearly: what is added is the confidence to handle complex emergencies, and what is subtracted is the impressive-looking but useless empty formalism. Between the additions and subtractions, a force's foundation for winning battles grows ever more solid and reliable.
The "Visible" and "Latent" in Training Metrics——
One must not only fixate on "visible achievements (显绩)" in pursuit of quick results; one must focus more on "latent achievements (潜绩)" to lay foundations and build platforms
In summer, in a certain airspace, a red-versus-blue adversarial exercise quietly commenced. Multiple blue-force aircraft closed in, and under intense electromagnetic jamming, the data link between the red-force early warning aircraft and the fighter group was intermittent.
At this moment, if the early warning aircraft withdrew and returned to base, it could safely disengage; but if it persisted in adjusting its position to continue guidance, it risked exposing its own location.
"If you train with your hands tied, you will never develop capabilities that can withstand the test of actual combat." The red-force airborne commander did not hesitate, immediately coordinating with the crew to adjust position and re-plan the scheme. Before long, the red-force formation completed a simulated attack under the guidance of the early warning aircraft.
This smooth handling of an emergency situation was backed by a deeply painful lesson. During a training assessment the previous year, the early warning aircraft and fighter formation dispatched by the division went into action, and all scores—link establishment time, number of commands issued, timeliness of target reporting—were rated "excellent."
But in the subsequent "back-to-back" adversarial exercise conducted without a preset plan, the blue force, relying on a flexible combination of electromagnetic suppression and tactical maneuvering, significantly increased the difficulty of air situation assessment for the early warning aircraft. The red-force fighter formation, deprived of stable and reliable guidance support, fell into a passive position, and the adversarial results were unsatisfactory.
During the debrief, everyone concluded that the phenomenon of excellent scores in routine assessments but poor results in complex electromagnetic environments reflected the problem of fixating only on "visible achievements" in peacetime training in pursuit of quick results, without focusing on "latent achievements" to lay foundations and build platforms.
Training metrics have a distinction between "visible" and "latent." Based on this understanding, the division Party committee made clear: the quality of military training achievements must be measured not only by the sortie counts and flight hours on reports, but also by whether special-mission aircraft can, under extreme conditions, serve as stable guidance nodes in joint operations.
To this end, the division vigorously pursued small-system training (小体系训练), randomly setting up jamming, false targets, link interruptions, and other emergency situations during training. After each training session, metrics such as target guidance timeliness deviation and command instruction accuracy rate became hard indicators for evaluating effectiveness.
At the same time, they proactively established a normalized joint training mechanism with bomber, surface vessel, submarine, and shore-based missile units, honing situational awareness, network formation and link establishment (组网建链), and cross-domain guidance capabilities under complex conditions. From single-aircraft guidance to multi-service coordination, wherever the flight track of special-mission aircraft extends, the combined strength of system-of-systems operations (体系作战) is brought to bear.
Not long ago, the division's aircraft urgently took off and proceeded to a certain airspace to execute an identification mission. Faced with multiple groups of targets closing in, the airborne commander rapidly completed target identification and distribution, directed the formation to adjust its tactical grouping, precisely occupied advantageous positions, and completed warning and expulsion operations in accordance with laws and regulations.
"Putting more effort into 'latent achievements' around actual combat capabilities in peacetime means having the 'visible achievements' to defeat the enemy in wartime." The division leadership explained that to solve the problem of "insufficient fidelity of the training environment," they established a simulation training center that realistically replicates scenarios such as multi-aircraft guidance and open-ocean anti-submarine operations. Flight personnel can rehearse the coordination procedures between special-mission aircraft and fighters and surface vessels on the ground. In addition, they formed a tactics research and training group, establishing a closed-loop model of "subject-driven—simulated exercise—live-force verification—debrief optimization," continuously improving training quality and effectiveness.
The "Primary" and "Secondary" in Live-Force Adversarial Exercises——
Abandoning the passive following of "acting on orders," seeking the proactive initiative of "independently breaking through the situation (自主破局)"
"Ship-aircraft coordinated network formation, deploy sonobuoys." At a live anti-submarine training exercise, the airborne commander issued the order decisively. As sonobuoys entered the water one by one, surface vessels rapidly moved forward to establish a cordon. Within minutes, stable contact signals appeared on the sonobuoys, and the target was quickly identified. Captain Tian adjusted course, and the commander guided the surface vessels to occupy advantageous positions and launch an attack on the target.
After training concluded, a debrief immediately got underway. Captain Tian summarized: "In the past, in coordinated anti-submarine operations, the surface vessel was the central platform and the maritime patrol aircraft played more of a supporting role. Now the role of the maritime patrol aircraft has changed, and our tactics must change too."
Behind this proactive pursuit of change and willingness to take responsibility is the earnest practice of a correct outlook on performance achievements. The division leadership told reporters that since the beginning of this year, they have proactively broken fixed patterns, optimizing coordination procedures item by item—from network formation and link establishment to reconnaissance and positioning, from situational sharing to three-dimensional offense and defense—and continuously innovating tactics and training methods in practice.
Recently, the division participated in a cross-regional live-force training exercise, with maritime patrol aircraft, early warning aircraft, surface vessels, and other types of equipment forming a joint formation to conduct combat-realistic training subjects including air defense and anti-missile operations, joint anti-submarine operations, and anti-surface strike under complex electromagnetic conditions.
This time, there was no higher-level agency following along to provide guidance, and no established experience or model to follow. The airborne commander participating in the training called this exercise a "major examination": "We must plan independently, command independently, and fight independently—all decisions must be made in real time in the air."
Above the clouds, the radar screens in the cockpit were dense with returns, and brief, forceful reports came through the headsets. Participating officers and soldiers continuously struck their keyboards, precisely analyzing target information.
On the scene, the opposing submarine used a thermocline layer to execute evasive maneuvering, and the sonar signal suddenly disappeared. Faced with this emergency, the participating officers and soldiers responded calmly, rapidly coordinating surface vessels to shift search positions based on new tactics developed through prior exploration. Moments later, the target was reacquired, and the joint formation completed a simulated attack.
"The success of this anti-submarine training was not accidental." The division leadership told reporters that beforehand they had earnestly conducted a major discussion on "how I view and carry out my post," guiding officers and soldiers to thoroughly examine deviations in the outlook on performance achievements in training and to improve and innovate in alignment with actual combat standards. This year, multiple tactical innovations they developed received affirmation from higher authorities, and the atmosphere of officers and soldiers proactively studying warfare has grown increasingly robust.
At sunset, the glow of dusk saturates the sea and sky as the maritime patrol aircraft skims the waves homeward. Inside the control tower, flight backbone personnel and airborne combat service personnel sit together in discussion, reviewing mission track data, examining shortfalls in sonobuoy deployment positions, ship-aircraft coordination communications, and other areas, and pooling their thinking to optimize tactics and methods.
For the division's officers and soldiers, genuine achievement is not a slogan hung on the lips, but something hidden in the seriousness of every debrief and woven into the optimization of every training exercise. These "Sea-Sky Eagles" are, with the mentality of "resetting to zero after every engagement (战后即清零)," continuously elevating combat effectiveness through self-renewal and reshaping.