The first military exercise involving long-range maneuvers by the Chinese People's Liberation Army ended on Thursday morning with a 'combat' exercise in the grasslands of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The 'Red Army', a mechanized infantry brigade from the Shenyang Military Area Command had traveled more than 1,000 kilometers to the combat area and launched a fierce attack on the positions of the 'Blue Army' - an armored brigade from the Beijing Military Area Command.

Combat vehicles including tanks, self-propelled artillery and armed infantry vehicles moved swiftly through the smoke of the combat zone. 

Anti-jamming operations were conducted to halt the effect of electromagnetic jamming, attacks on computer networks were met by computer defense systems and shells launched by various forms of artillery crisscrossed in the sky. Tank units engaged in a 'battle' using laser systems.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2006)