The infantry fighting vehicle runs at full speed on the track. Photo by Jiang Dongpo.

KORLA, Aug 19 -- The "Clear Sky" event of the International Army Games (IAG) 2021 will kick off in Korla, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in late August. The Chinese team selected from a brigade under the PLA 83rd Group Army is conducting adaptive training to make full preparations for the contest.

The "Clear Sky" event this year consists of three stages: mastery race, cooperation race and combined race. Each team must pass through 12 vehicle obstacles such as ford obstacle, anti-tank ditch obstacle and off-center passage obstacle, and use automatic rifles, anti-aircraft machineguns and man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) to complete firing at targets of different types in six firing positions. The final results are judged based on overall performance of obstacle crosing, shooting accuracy and total runtime.

MANPADS firing is a major item in the contest to test the combat capability of the team members. When the target projectile is blasted into the air, at almost the same time, the target acquisition and missile launching should be done and the best firing time can only last for three to four seconds, which requires the team members to be able to achieve the principle of "seek and destroy".

?Infantry fighting vehicle driving is an important part of the competition. The driver must fastly pass multiple complex obstacles such as track bridge obstacle and ford obstacle, and use rifles, missiles and anti-aircraft machine guns to complete shooting tasks at a stretch.

?Compared with previous years, the difficulty of this year's "Clear Sky" event increased in the aspects of infantry vehicle driving, individual firing and team cooperation, making it a comprehensive test on the physical, technical and psychological qualities for each participant.

Participants carry out firing training. Photo by Jiang Dongpo.