Formation Strikes Out! A Close Look at an Air Force Unit's Late-Night Flight Training
A summer night in the south, dark as ink. At a certain airfield, combat aircraft stood arrayed in formation, engines roaring. As a signal flare split the night sky, several aircraft lifted off in succession, and a certain Air Force unit's late-night flight training opened its battle curtain.
While maneuvering toward the target airspace, in order to evade detection by "enemy" air defense early-warning radars, the flight lead, following the coordinated plan, brought the formation down into ultra-low-altitude flight. The aircraft formation used terrain masking and the cover of darkness to conduct an ultra-low-altitude silent penetration (超低空静默突防).
"The second half of the night is a period of physiological fatigue for the human body. Combined with the darkness obstructing visibility and the absence of reference points over the sea, it is an enormous test of pilots' technical and tactical proficiency and psychological quality." The unit leader organizing the training on site told reporters that during the preparation phase of this training, they organized participating pilots to review past night-flight videos, rigorously conducted multiple rounds of technical and tactical research and simulation deductions, assessed meteorological conditions, flight routes, and other factors in the mission airspace, formulated multiple sets of contingency plans for possible emergencies such as course deviation and disorientation, and strengthened cockpit hands-on training under low-light and dim-light conditions to help pilots adapt to the dark-night environment and improve their ability to handle battlefield emergencies.
Flying under the stars and moon, the formation struck out. "Throttle up and climb!" As the "enemy" target entered strike range, the flight lead pilot gave the order, and the formation rapidly ascended to an advantageous altitude, completing in sequence the operations of establishing the attack run, radar search, and target identification. Each crew carefully verified parameters such as coordinates and flight path, and proficiently completed all preparations prior to fire strike. "Fire!" The order came, and multiple missiles screamed out toward the target. The formation immediately broke away in a steep turn and disappeared into the vast darkness.
"Attack complete, target destroyed!" The report came from the airborne command post, and the damage assessment showed favorable results. The tower commander introduced to reporters that during this training, the formation's crews coordinated with seamless precision, successfully completing a coordinated saturation strike (协同饱和打击) and meeting the tactical requirements of covert approach to the enemy, rapid deployment, and precision destruction.
At dawn, the war eagles returned. The pilots stepped down from their aircraft and walked briskly to the tactical assessment room, where they used flight parameter data to conduct a debrief, analyzing one by one the problems exposed during training. "Although we conducted thorough simulation training in advance, the unexpected situations that arose intermittently during the flight posed no small challenge to me at times," said one young pilot, adding that he would conduct targeted intensive training in the next phase of training, striving to improve with every battle fought.
"The future battlefield changes in an instant. Only by continuously tempering the unit's coordinated combat capability (协同作战能力) can we ensure that at the critical moment we can take off at any time and defeat the enemy." The unit leader explained that in recent times they have continuously organized multiple late-night flight training sessions, focusing on tempering the unit's nighttime force sortie and sustained combat capabilities, and that commanders' abilities to make decisions and exercise command under complex situations and pilots' abilities to conduct high-intensity coordinated strikes have been fully tested.