2 Chinese military naval pilots killed during PLA frontline training exercises

Rare local government disclosures reveal senior colonel and first lieutenant from South China Sea-facing theatre command died on June 10 Two Chinese military pilots, including a high-ranking tactical commander, were killed during frontline flight training exercises last month, according to official regional government notices and local media tracking. Beijing, which seldom discloses military fatalities, has not made any statement about the deaths, and it is not known if the pilots were killed in the same incident. As China aggressively modernises its armed forces, it has intensified training on new tactics and hardware to ensure its troops can adapt to the demands of modern warfare. One of the pilots, 38-year-old Fang Ming, was a senior colonel who served as a tactical commander under the People’s Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command Naval Aviation unit, according to a report by Hefei Daily on July 3. Fang, from Lujiang county in the central Chinese province of Anhui, enlisted in 2006, according to the state media outlet. The Lujiang local government posted a video on Monday saying that Fang died during flight training on June 10.

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