PLA Field Training Grounds Evolve into Cross-Service Testing Centers

People's Liberation Army (PLA) units across multiple services are turning routine seasonal field encampments into decentralized testing grounds for joint, autonomous confrontation training, according to official military reports. Units from the Ground Force, Air Force, and Rocket Force stationed in neighboring field sites are pairing up without centralized scripts to conduct multi-domain exercises, including electromagnetic jamming, low-altitude air defense against drone swarms, and unmanned ground vehicle integration. Key practices include cross-branch debriefs, joint scheduling, and sharing critical flight-parameter data.

The shift indicates a transition in PLA tactical training from rigid, pre-choreographed exercises toward decentralized, cross-service confrontation. By establishing direct bilateral coordination between co-located units, tactical commanders are breaking down service silos at the grassroots level, accelerating the real-world operational testing of combined-arms counter-drone, electronic warfare, and air-defense integration.

Chinese military units across the Ground Force, Air Force, and Rocket Force are increasingly using shared seasonal field encampments as decentralized testing grounds for cross-service confrontation training, according to reports published by PLA Daily and People's Daily. In field exercises staged across desert, northwestern frontier, and forested terrain, frontline units have shifted from isolated single-service maneuvers toward integrated opposing-force engagements. In the Gobi desert, Air Force surface-to-air missile units conducted rapid relocations under combat alerts while adjacent radar stations and opposing 'Blue Force' aviation units executed multi-vector penetration attacks against layered air-defense arrays. Similar decentralized drills have extended to electronic warfare and unmanned combat operations. During nocturnal drills involving a brigade from the 76th Group Army and Air Force aviation units, fighter jets conducted low-altitude penetrations under dense electromagnetic interference, testing ground radar operators' electronic counter-countermeasures and antiaircraft artillery barrage fire against drone swarms. In northwestern frontier zones, aviation brigades carried out dual-aircraft feints to test tactical air defense responses, while Rocket Force units deployed specialized opposing-force detachments employing mixed manned-unmanned harassment tactics against mobile missile launch batteries. Tactical integration has also expanded into technical data exchange and mutual evaluation. Participating units reported instituting shared training schedules, joint post-exercise debriefs, and the exchange of flight-parameter data. Pilots and ground radar operators rotated through flight control towers and mobile radar cabins to analyze tracking performance and evasion maneuvers. Additionally, Ground Force formations used these bilateral training environments to test emerging concepts, pairing reconnaissance drones with unmanned assault vehicles while neighboring units validated camouflage and electronic disruption methods for counter-unmanned operations. Commanders noted that initiating bilateral coordination with nearby units before entering field training grounds has become a standard method for sustaining combat readiness.