The guided-missile destroyer Chengdu (Hull 120) attached to a naval vessel training center under the PLA Northern Theater Command fires its main-gun against mock sea targets during a 3-day maritime training exercise from November 4 to 6, 2020. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Zou Xiangmin)

 

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) will hold two simultaneous exercises in the South China Sea on Tuesday, and one of them could feature amphibious landing drills, reports said on Monday.

A set of military exercises will be held in a sea region west of the Leizhou Peninsula from Tuesday to November 30, and another set of exercises will be held in the Honghai Bay on Tuesday, the PLA Daily reported on Monday, citing two navigation restrictions released by the Maritime Safety Administration of South China's Guangdong Province on the same day.

Both locations are in the South China Sea, and no other ships will be allowed to enter the restricted zones, according to the notices.

Neither the Maritime Safety Administration notices nor the PLA Daily report gave details of the drills.

In a similar region near the Leizhou Peninsula, the PLA held live-fire exercises that covered an extensive area with powerful ammunition in late July, according to a notice released by the PLA Unit 95180 via local media Beihai Television at that time.

The Honghai Bay off the city of Shanwei is of high military value, and can be used for amphibious landing and island seizure exercises, Shanghai-based news website eastday.com reported on Monday, noting that the area is only about 100 nautical miles away from the Dongsha Islands.

In May 2019, China and Thailand held the amphibious landing section of the Blue Commando-2019 joint naval drills in the Honghai Bay. Major amphibious landing equipment including the Type 071 amphibious landing ship, Zubr-class air-cushioned landing craft and Type 05 amphibious assault vehicle were used in those drills, eastday.com said.

Global Times