Deeply Advancing Combat-Realistic Military Training | Forging the Blade's Edge on the High-Altitude Plateau in the Dark of Night
An Army Regiment Organizes Consecutive Training in High-Difficulty Subjects—— Forging the Blade's Edge on the High-Altitude Plateau in the Dark of Night
■ Yang Xin, Liu Jian
On a summer night, on the Karakoram Plateau. A sharp, urgent whistle blast shattered the silence as a certain Army regiment launched a consecutive training exercise integrating two high-difficulty subjects: nighttime maneuver and nighttime live-fire shooting.
Officers and soldiers moved at the order, rapidly completing loading and boarding vehicles according to their combat groupings. Several infantry fighting vehicles switched off their headlights and sped toward unfamiliar terrain guided solely by low-light night-vision equipment. The convoy crept along winding mountain roads, the undulating ridgelines casting an eerie green glow through the night-vision devices.
High-altitude weather is complex and changeable. While the unit was maneuvering, an unexpected snowstorm struck, and snow rapidly blanketed the road surface. "Snow ahead—all vehicles increase spacing and proceed at low speed!" The words had barely been spoken when an emergency arose: the right front wheel of Infantry Fighting Vehicle No. 2 sank into a hidden pothole concealed by the snow. Battalion Commander Qiu of a certain battalion issued a decisive order: "All vehicles hold security positions—Vehicle 2 crew, handle it yourselves!"
Wedging in stones, jacking up the vehicle… Freezing wind drove snow pellets into their faces, but the crew of Vehicle No. 2 paid no heed to the cold and worked in close coordination. Before long, the fighting vehicle was successfully freed.
"On the future battlefield, you can encounter any situation—you must forge rock-solid skills." Battalion Commander Qiu explained that for this night training exercise, they set no route markers in advance, conducted no prior route reconnaissance, and relied entirely on vehicle-mounted navigation and terrain data for judgment. Improvised contingencies were woven throughout the entire training exercise, genuinely and rigorously tempering officers and soldiers' capabilities for rapid maneuver and emergency response in unfamiliar terrain and complex weather conditions.
After the convoy reached the designated area, officers and soldiers swiftly moved to their combat positions and, under low-light conditions, completed communications link establishment, target-area safety sweeps, and final fire-control system calibration in preparation for firing.
"'Enemy' armored target area—targets appearing and disappearing at random—conduct autonomous search, acquisition, and destruction!" With the order issued, the fighting vehicles advanced in combat formation.
In the low light, the target area was cut through with gullies and ravines, with targets concealed among them and extremely difficult to distinguish. "Enemy fighting vehicle detected, front left." Inside the turret, gunner Tang Yunpeng kept his eyes fixed to the gun sight and was the first to acquire the outline of a target.
"Target locked—armor-piercing round, load." Vehicle commander Xiong Tao rapidly confirmed the parameters; Tang Yunpeng quickly tracked the target, and Xiong Tao decisively issued the fire command. In an instant, a tongue of flame erupted and the round tore through the night—but struck the earthen slope to the left of the target.
Seeing this, Tang Yunpeng felt a jolt of tension. The effects of high-altitude air pressure and wind speed on the trajectory far exceed those on the plains. He immediately recalculated the correction, making a fine adjustment to the aiming direction. Moments later, a second round screamed out and struck the target squarely.
The firing continued as targets appeared and disappeared in multiple directions and multiple waves. The participating officers and soldiers responded with composure, independently assessing threats and switching between different round types; round after round left the barrel, and targets "bloomed" one after another.
Inside the command observation post, Staff Officer Deng of the regiment's operations and training section monitored the training progress in real time through night-vision equipment, recording data such as shell impact points and crew response times. "Night shooting is a test of hard skills: search and detection, rapid judgment, and precise coordination." Staff Officer Deng explained that the entire training exercise used randomly appearing and disappearing targets with no pre-set target orientations, approximating actual combat to the maximum extent, with the aim of genuinely and rigorously examining and improving the unit's night-combat capability.
In the early hours of the following morning, with the conclusion of the final round of fire strikes, the nighttime live-fire shooting training exercise came to a successful close. Statistical data showed that the overall hit rate of participating vehicle crews improved markedly compared to the previous round of night training, with multiple crews posting excellent scores.
As training ended, each vehicle crew immediately launched after-action review discussions, with officers and soldiers digging deep into the root causes of problems and summarizing lessons in areas including first-round hits, contingency handling, and coordination.
"Night combat is a traditional advantage of our military and is also one of the primary operational modes under informatized (信息化) conditions." The regiment's leadership stated that they will continue to focus on core combat capabilities including nighttime reconnaissance, precision strike, and rapid maneuver; construct battlefield environments from a position of difficulty and strictness; carry out concentrated and refined training in earnest; and continuously forge the unit's hard skills for all-domain, all-hours (全时域) operations.