A South Theatre Command air brigade recently carried out intensive cross–day-and–night opposing exercises featuring Chengdu J-10 fighters, state-affiliated media reported. Red and blue teams converged on the mission area and immediately engaged in system-level confrontation: reconnaissance, electronic interference, target locking and escape maneuvers played out aggressively against a backdrop of clouds and night sky.
The short official account, and the video it accompanied, emphasize the integration of sensors, jamming and pilot tactics rather than lone-actor dogfights. That framing points to a broader shift in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) doctrine toward networked air operations in which aircraft, electronic warfare platforms and reconnaissance assets operate as a single system to find, fix and suppress adversaries.
The timing and venue are significant. The South Theatre Command’s area of responsibility includes the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait—zones of strategic competition with the United States and regional neighbours. Demonstrating sustained, round-the-clock opposing-force training serves both readiness goals and signaling purposes: it tells domestic and foreign audiences that PLA air units can sustain complex operations under contested conditions.
The report offers few technical details, which is typical of state releases intended for public consumption. Still, the emphasis on cross–day-and–night drills and electronic-countermeasure exchanges suggests continued upgrades to PLAAF training standards, pilot experience in degraded environments, and the maturation of datalinks and electronic-warfare suites that enable coordinated, multi-domain missions.
Viewed externally, the footage and write-up function as calibrated messaging. They reassure a domestic audience about military competence while reminding regional rivals that China is steadily professionalizing its air forces. For defence planners in Washington, Taipei and capitals across Southeast Asia, the development underlines the need to account for improved PLA endurance, night-fighting capability and systems-level operations when modelling future contingencies.
While the article is brief and promotional, analysts should treat it as one data point among many. The PLAAF’s trajectory toward integrated, networked combat is consistent with years of procurement, exercises and doctrine, but the true measure of capability will be how these elements perform together under operational stress—something open-source reports cannot fully verify.