PLA Expands Cross-Service Co-Located Field Training Across Multiple Theaters

The Chinese People's Liberation Army is institutionalizing cross-service, co-located field training to accelerate system-of-systems combat integration, according to reports in military and state media. Units across multiple theater commands—including the Eastern, Western, and Northern Theaters—are sharing airfields, combining command post deliberations, and establishing operational data-sharing mechanisms. Rather than operating in organizational silos or traveling hundreds of kilometers to find designated sparring partners, diverse service branches are increasingly using routine field exercises to alternate between mutual support roles and opposing-force tactical engagements.

The institutionalization of multi-service co-located training indicates that joint integration is moving downward from strategic theater headquarters into operational and tactical field units. Merging command posts, pooling airfield maintenance for naval and air force combat aircraft, and linking air defense networks across the Army and Air Force show practical steps toward overcoming historic inter-service barriers.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has made cross-service, co-located field training a routine practice across theater commands, according to reports published by the PLA Daily and state media. The initiative aims to accelerate operational integration by having units from different military branches share base facilities and alternate between serving as coordinated teammates and opposing forces during field drills. At an Eastern Theater Command Air Force airfield, aircraft from the Army, Navy, and Air Force are now scheduled, launched, and supported from the same facility, state media reported. Participating units instituted a coordination routine characterized as 'daily confrontation, weekly review, and monthly improvement.' Naval aviation crews also paired directly with Air Force units to coordinate simulated strike tactics against land and maritime targets, completing tasks that previously required complex cross-service coordination across multiple dispersed bases. Command integration is also being tested in high-altitude environments. During an exercise at an integrated training range on a plateau, a brigade under the 76th Group Army co-located its command post with Air Force and Army Aviation units. Staff officers and commanders wearing differing service arm patches planned operations at the same tables, directing integrated operations among ground-based air defense, aerial assault, and electronic countermeasures formations. Data sharing across institutional boundaries formed another key focus of recent drills. In the Western Theater Command, an Air Force unit engaged with co-located elements of the PLA's Information Support Force and an Army air defense brigade. According to the reports, the units worked to move beyond the traditional habit of treating operational data as branch-exclusive property, attempting to construct an integrated tactical information-sharing mechanism. Similarly, a surface-to-air missile unit in the Northern Theater Command Air Force established standardized data-sharing procedures with co-located sister units to coordinate a multi-layered air defense firing network. Beyond command and data links, field bases have introduced joint technical cross-training workshops and case seminars. PLA commentators described the shift as moving system-of-systems training beyond mere 'physical aggregation' toward genuine structural cohesion across services.