China, U.S. stage search-and-rescue drill

Source: Xinhuanet | 11-20-2006 08:48

Related : U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander visits Marine Corps

"ZHANJIANG" MISSILE DESTROYER, South China Sea, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- The navies of China and the United States held a search-and-rescue exercise on the South China Sea on Sunday morning.

The exercise involved China's guided missile destroyer "Zhanjiang," fuel tanker "Dongting Lake," the USS Juneau (LPD 10) and the USS missile destroyer Fitzgerald.

China's Yun-7 transport plane and the U.S. P-3C patrol plane also participated in the exercise.

The two navies conducted communications, fleet formation changes and search-and-rescue exercises.

The basic idea behind the exercise was for the Chinese and U.S. navies to jointly locate a ship in danger and salvage it. The two sides commanded different stages of the whole exercise.

The Chinese side took charge of the communications and searching stage, while the U.S. side commanded vessels of the two countries to conduct the rescue.

The communications drills had been conducted at Saturday night in the waters east to the Zhanjiang Port.

The formation drill started on 7:30 a.m. and China's "Zhanjiang" and the USS Juneau completed four formation changes in about one hour.

On 9:25 am, the joint rescue excises began. The USS Juneau passed the order to the USS missile destroyer Fitzgerald to search for "Dongting Lake", the Chinese ship "in danger", after receiving Zhanjiang's signal for help.

The USS Jeneau, the U.S. navy's only forward-deployed amphibious transport dock. (Xinhua Photo)

The Yun-7 and P-3C were asked to help with the location mission.

On 10:25 am, the location of the ship "in danger" was confirmed and, about half an hour later, "the fire" on the ship was extinguished, the "damaged" ship body was fixed and the "injured" crew members received medical treatment.