By Wang Xueyu and Yang Xiaobo

URUMQI, Sept. 14 -- In the early morning of September 11, two Y-20 transport aircraft carrying the first echelon of Chinese troops participating in the Kavkaz-2020 strategic exercise took off and flew to a military airport in Russia thousands of kilometers away in the Astrakhan Region.

The transnational strategic delivery through ultra-long distance in succession has taken over 10 hours. Although the Russian side has offered some basic flight data for landing, the Chinese side is unfamiliar with the topography near the airport and the meteorological conditions along the way are complicated.

The Chinese military thereby has dispatched elite crew members with rich flight experience after multiple simulated loading and unloading training drills on various problems that may arise during the transportation of air cargo. 

The Chinese participating troops have exited from Urumqi, passing through the airspace of Kazakhstan, and arriving at a military airport in Russia’s Astrakhan Region on September 11, local time; afterwards, they arrived at the exercise venue as scheduled by Russian helicopters and transport vehicles.

To take part in the joint exercise of multinational forces in Russia, all Chinese troops involved were sent by aircraft in point-to-point force delivery in two echelons to the designated exercise area. The first participating contingent flew to the scheduled airport in Russia on two new type domestically developed transport aircraft along with various weapons and equipment as well as some necessary materials including materials for medical treatment and epidemic prevention and basic living necessities. This is a brand-new experience, effectively testing Chinese military’s capacity in transnational fixed-point delivery for long distance.