??? The guided-missile destroyer Jinan and the guided-missile frigate Yiyang of the Chinese PLA Navy and the guided-missile destroyer USS Mason, USS Stout and the guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey sail in a single file during a joint drill in the Atlantic Ocean on November 7, 2015. (Chinamil.com.cn / Dai Zongfeng)
ATLANTIC OCEAN, November 9 (ChinaMil) -- The Chinese and American navies kicked off their joint drill in the Atlantic Ocean southeast of the Navy Station Mayport at 10:00 am November 7, 2015, the first of its kind between the two navies.
The guided-missile destroyer Jinan, guided-missile frigate Yiyang and comprehensive supply ship Qiandaohu from the Fleet 152 of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, which just wrapped up their goodwill visit to the U.S., participated in the drill.
Participating vessels from the U.S. Navy included the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mason and USS Stout as well as the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey.
The USS Mason and Jinan warship successfully established communication on the pre-set frequency band. At about 11:00 am, the three Chinese naval vessels approached the U.S. taskforce in a single file from the portside, and sailed in parallel with it at the lateral distance of 0.5 nautical mile. The two sides joined at the designated waters.
The first item was communication drill. Signalman on the destroyer Jinan observed the code flags put up by the USS Mason, and the communication division on duty recounted the CUES code and decrypted text to the USS Mason through very high frequency (VHF) for validation.
After the destroyer Jinan and USS Mason repeated this exercise in the opposite order, the frigate Yiyang also conducted this exercise with the USS Stout and USS Monterey. Both sides transmitted signals accurately.
After the exercise of communication on the sea ended at 12:00 am, the Chinese and American navies began the formation maneuvering exercise, during which China's Jinan and USS Stout took turns as the commanding warship.
China's Jinan and Yiyang also exercised formation changes such as line abreast and single column with three U.S. vessels. The Qiandaohu warship joined the exercise later and the six naval vessels formed a maritime cordon formation.
"This is the wrecked U.S. boat. We are 120 degrees of your azimuth and 4000 yards away…" As soon as the formation maneuvering exercise ended, the Jinan warship and the USS Mason received distress signals from two simulated wrecked boats from the USS Stout, which kicked off the joint search and rescue exercise.
The whole joint drill was successfully wrapped up at 4:00 pm.
