A top surface-to-air missile unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force recently took part in a systematic confrontational exercise, in which it for the first time tested its quick deployment capability by flying with Y-20 large transport aircraft. This method will significantly enhance China's air defense flexibility, analysts said on Wednesday.
Stationed in Southwest China's border region, a land-based missile battalion affiliated with the air force of the PLA Southern Theater Command participated in the Red Sword exercise and won the top award, the Golden Shield, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Tuesday.
During the exercise, a systematic confrontational one organized by the PLA Air Force with the participation of aviation forces and other land-based missile forces using other types of surface-to-air missiles, this battalion coordinated with friendly forces against hostile ones, simulated more than 50 missile launches, and defended against over 30 systematic targets in mock combat, according to the report.
The exercise marked the first time this battalion tested its quick deployment capability by flying with Y-20 transport aircraft, as it mobilized across the country to locations including Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Northwest China's Gansu Province, CCTV said.
The CCTV report included footage showing an HQ-22 air defense missile launcher vehicle entering a Y-20 large transport aircraft.
Long-range, rapid deployment of heavy surface-to-air missiles has great tactical and even strategic significance, as it enables the PLA to enhance regional air defense in a flexible manner, a Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Wednesday.
This is made possible thanks to the PLA Air Force's commissioning of the Y-20 transport plane in large numbers, since an air defense missile unit usually consists of many elements that require a fleet of strategic cargo planes for transport operations, including launcher vehicles, radar vehicles and other command and support units, the expert said.
In April 2022, many Y-20 large transport aircraft flew from China to Serbia over several consecutive days to deliver FK-3 air defense missile systems Serbia had procured from China. Observers called the mission at the time the largest overseas operation by the Y-20.
The FK-3 is the export version of the domestic-use HQ-22, so it is a natural development that the PLA Air Force is now practicing long-range transport of the HQ-22 using the Y-20, analysts said.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202301/1284029.shtml
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), a leading civil rights organization, has accused Israel of carrying out “an organized and systematic practice of sexual torture” against Palestinian detainees from the besieged Gaza Strip.
PCHR said in a new report that its investigators have documented extensive sexual violence against both Palestinian women and men detained by Israeli forces across Gaza over the past two years.
According to PCHR, researchers and lawyers interviewed several Palestinians recently released from Israeli custody, who described repeated incidents of rape, forced stripping, filming of abuse, and sexual assault using objects and dogs, along with other forms of psychological humiliation.
One 42-year-old mother, detained while crossing an Israeli checkpoint in northern Gaza in November 2024, told investigators she endured repeated rape and physical abuse over several days.
“They put me on a metal table, pressed my chest and head against it, cuffed my ...
Accepting the Washington-based lender’s plan would be a “disgrace” for Dakar, the African state’s prime minister has said
Senegal has rejected a debt-restructuring proposal put forward by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The West African country’s prime minister, Ousmane Sonko, said following the plan would amount to a national “disgrace.”
Sonko made the remarks at a rally in the capital, Dakar, on Sunday, days after the Washington-based lender concluded a two-week mission to Senegal without a new financing deal.
Senegal’s public debt has risen to over $11 billion amid the discovery of $7 billion in undeclared loans. The IMF has since frozen a $1.8 billion lending facility to the former French colony, citing misreporting and hidden debt.
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who came to power in April 2024, has blamed his predecessor, Macky Sall, for the debt crisis.....more here
https://www.rt.com/africa/627581-senegal-rejects-imf-debt-restructuring-proposal/
While Washington dreams of a Golden Dome, Beijing is quietly building one that actually works
When Donald Trump unveiled the Golden Dome in May 2025, he promised nothing less than a revolution in American security – a $175-billion missile defense shield designed to intercept any threat to the United States.
Modeled on Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the new project envisions an integrated network of satellites, next-generation interceptors, radars, and laser weapons extending from the Earth’s surface to outer space. The ambition is clear: complete, preemptive, and absolute protection by 2029.
Yet behind the spectacle of technological grandeur lies a troubling pattern. No concrete system architecture has been presented, and early projections suggest the true cost could triple the official figure. More importantly, the concept of “absolute security” signals an enduring American desire for unipolar dominance – one that undermines, rather than reinforces, global ...
