By Wang Peng, Yuan Junmin and Yi Ding

HONG KONG, Sept. 28 -- The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Hong Kong Garrison staged an air-sea joint patrol exercise involving troops of army, navy and air force of the Garrison in waters and airspace near Hong Kong on Saturday. The drill was aimed to test and improve the troops’ capabilities of fulfilling emergency missions, making quick response and carrying out joint operations.

The first training subject was the search and rescue of drowning people in the nearby waters, which was a coordinated operation between the naval and air force troops of the Garrison.

After more than one hour of searching, the mocking "victims" who fell into the water were successfully rescued, with one in critical condition being sent to the garrison hospital by helicopter.

The visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) operations on the "suspicious vessel" was conducted subsequently. The air force helicopters that arrived at the exercise waters first kept tracking the mock "suspected vessel" and then coordinated naval ships to successfully force it to stop. A team of special operation members taking a speedboat boarded and controlled the “suspected ship” in an assault action

Throughout the drill, the confrontation training of aviation, radar, and naval units continued, in a bid to enhance the battle effectiveness in joint operations of the garrison troops.