Air Force Special Pilot Li Ling: Fight hard, only to be worthy of the "first" mission

Flying on the "first" mission route

-- Li Ling, brigade commander of a certain brigade of the Air Force Aviation Corps and special pilot of the Air Force

■ People's Liberation Army Daily reporter Li Jianwen Zhang Yuqing Special correspondent Wang Xuefeng

Above: On January 10, Li Ling flew a plane to participate in air combat confrontation training (video screenshot). Yang Panzhao

"The motherland uses the first to name us, and we use the first to return to the motherland."

In the courtyard of a certain brigade of the Air Force Aviation Corps, a line of vigorous red characters is particularly eye-catching.

"Our brigade was formerly the first aviation unit of the People's Air Force to form, participate in the war, and win the first victory, and was awarded the honorary title of 'First Division of the Air Force' in history." Li Ling, commander of the brigade, told reporters, "As a descendant of the 'First Division of the Air Force' in the new era, the 'first' has become the spiritual totem of the brigade and integrated into our blood." ”

As an excellent pilot who grew up from this ace unit, Li Ling flew a variety of aircraft types, won the "Golden Helmet" once, and won the second class of personal merit 3 times. His unit has completed a number of major tasks, winning the first place in the Air Force Against Air Combat Group 5 times and winning the "Golden Helmet" 5 times. In July 2019, the brigade's flying brigade was awarded the honorary title of "Strong Army Pioneer Flying Brigade" by the Central Military Commission, and President Xi Jinping personally presented them with the award flag.

"Fight hard, just to make yourself worthy of the mission of 'first'." Li Ling said.

Bathing in the glory of "first", we must shoulder the mission of "first"

Although many years have passed, Li Ling still clearly remembers the first day he came here to report——

On the sixth day of the first lunar month of that year, he had just put down his backpack and was taken into the honor room. Li Han, the first person of the People's Air Force to shoot down an enemy plane in an air battle, and the Central Military Commission awarded the "First Division of the Air Force" the honorary pennant... Photograph after photo, physical object, he was shocked.

"Bathing in the glory of the 'first', we harvest a lot of 'material wealth' and spiritual wealth." Li Ling said with deep feeling, "Advanced fighters have equipped us in advance many times, and most of the major tasks have allowed us to be the vanguard and take the lead." ”

However, the fact that the predecessors played "first" does not mean that later generations are still "first". The Air Force organized the first anti-air combat competition assessment, and this unit sent out an "ace team" and Li Ling went out with the team.

Unexpectedly, on the first matchday, they were eliminated by their opponents with a score of 166:59.

In that war, their aircraft performance was superior, their air combat experience was rich, and their fighting spirit was not inferior. However, just when they were still moving more often than whom, the load was pulled more and the movement was more rapid, the unknown opponent had already occupied the commanding heights of the battlefield by relying on electronic attack and defense.

The numbers 166:59 were cast by them into a plaque and embedded in the foyer of the air supply building. On the opposite side of the plaque is a statue of Li Han.

The opposition between history and reality, glory and failure, always inspires Li Ling and his comrades-in-arms.

No one knows how much they have suffered and how many risks they have taken. What people remember is that in the subsequent air combat competition assessment of the Air Force, they won the first place in the group for 3 consecutive years.

The "triple crown" did not make them proud, and each victory was followed by a top-down review and reflection. Li Ling said that he and his comrades-in-arms are well aware that "the first" is a dynamic evolutionary process, and only by unremitting efforts can the "first" favor you.

A sand table in the History Museum marks that they are constantly challenging their limits, breaking through themselves, and realizing one "first" after another of the Air Force units.

There is a familiar track that pilots especially cherish —

In 2020, the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army's war to resist the United States and aid Korea. On September 27, the remains of the seventh batch of 117 martyrs of the Korean Chinese Volunteer Army returned to the embrace of the motherland.

After the plane entered China's airspace, there was a conversation on the radio:

"20041 aircraft, I am Li Ling, commander of the Chinese Air Force Aviation Brigade, report on the nature of your mission."

"I am Xu Yanjun, the captain of the Y-20 of the Chinese Air Force, and I am ordered to receive the remains of the martyrs of the Volunteer Army back to China."

"Welcome home loyal martyrs of the volunteer army, two J-11B aircraft of our brigade, ordered to escort the whole process, to pay tribute to the heroes who defended their homes and defended the country."

On the eve of the Qingming Dynasty in 2021, the full recording of this dialogue was made public for the first time, and countless listeners burst into tears.

At that moment, history and reality seemed to intersect.

takeoff! 70 years ago, Li Han led the first pilots of New China to take off from here. After an average of only a dozen hours of flight training, they carried forward the spirit of "fighting bayonets in the air" in their moves against strong enemies, breaking the myth of the invincibility of the US military.

takeoff! 70 years later, Li Ling and his comrades-in-arms took off from here to welcome the remains of the volunteer martyrs who had left the country and returned to China.

"The 'first' always belongs to yesterday, and the responsibility of our generation is to continue to write the red legend." Returning from the mission, Li Ling said with emotion.

You can't just stare at the "first" in the arena, but also aim at the battlefield "first"

At the beginning of the New Year's training, the roar of the fighters cut through the cold air. Li Ling boarded the J-20 fighter, closed the canopy, and was the first to take off, leading the fighter formation to carry out a confrontational air combat training with brother troops.

The intensity of the aerial battle goes without saying. According to the flight plan, the fighter formations that have completed the confrontation training are ready to return. At this moment, Li Linglin commanded another group of fighters to intercept the returning fighter formation in the air. The intercepted fighter formations fought again and again before remaining in combat and returning to land.

Temporary aircraft guidance, temporary disposal, temporary command, and temporary combat are no longer "accidents" for the pilots of this unit. Stepping off the fighter plane, Li Ling's tone was calm: "Anything can happen on the battlefield, and only when there is more surprise in peacetime training can we stand in an invincible position in wartime." ”

In June last year, a news item attracted attention: "J-20 fighters lined up in the Air Force's 'Strong Army Pioneer Flying Brigade'." Li Ling and his comrades-in-arms flew onto the fourth-generation aircraft.

Sitting in the cabin of a fourth-generation aircraft, what will first-class military personnel see? Thinking about what?

After repeatedly winning the air force against the air combat group laurels, Li Ling and his comrades-in-arms became the objects of other aviation units to study and aspire to defeat.

The fraternal troops thought of this to learn from each other, and they were worried that the "exclusive secret" of their victory would not be passed on or true. Unexpectedly, Li Ling and his comrades-in-arms not only shared their tactical concepts with the brother troops, but also gave away their exquisite tactics and tricks.

This self-confidence stems from strength, and even more from Li Ling and his comrades-in-arms' deep thinking about "first".

In recent years, with the continuous innovation of the Air Force's actual combat training brand, the "Golden Helmet" battle has changed from the past score system to the shootdown system to the task system, and it is getting closer and closer to preparing for war. The various units of the Air Force learn from each other, you chase after each other, each has its own victory and defeat, Li Ling and his comrades-in-arms have achieved more powerful themselves while achieving their opponents.

They have long been not satisfied with the "first" on the field, but aimed at the "first" of the battlefield, and began to change from analyzing the rules of the game to judging the laws of the battlefield.

Everything is aimed at the battlefield, and everything is aimed at the actual battle. Li Ling said: In order to be the first, we must aim at the world's first-class, and this is the reference coordinate for their combat strength building.

At the beginning of that year, Li Ling led officers and men to carry out cross-regional maneuvering tasks in the context of actual combat. They took off and landed continuously at unfamiliar airports, took off in the middle of the night, crossed multiple regions, passed through multiple seas, and achieved a comprehensive breakthrough in training data, becoming the first unit of the Air Force to complete this training course that year.

Over the past few years, Li Ling has led officers and men to fly to the plateau, to the desert, and to the sea again and again, and from attacks on border conditions of equipment performance to free over-the-horizon air combat, the building of combat strength has always been in the forefront of the air force.

The individual "first" is by no means the real winner, forging a sword in the furnace of the system

At the end of last year, an air force base organized a quarterly all-element system confrontation exercise, and the brigade was incorporated into the Red Front.

The command post gave them the task of preventing the blue side from attacking the red side's key ground targets. On the same day, the blue side of the four fighters formed a surprise assault formation, under the cover of the other 4 fighters to drive straight in.

The captain of a large flying brigade, Gao Qiang, and his comrades flew 2 J-20 fighters to intercept in the air, and happened to encounter the blue side to cover the troops.

The four blue fighters on the cover mission immediately set up a combat formation and frequently provoked. The Blue Flank Assault Formation quietly evacuated in an attempt to darken Chen Cang.

Intergenerational fighters fight each other, and the J-20 wins. However, Gao Gaoqiang and his comrades did not greed for victory, but turned the nose of the plane, tracked and intercepted the blue surprise assault formation, and successfully blocked the opponent.

"If you had been obsessed with shooting down the number of enemy aircraft and were bent on taking down the blue cover forces first, even if you won that battle, you might have lost the entire battle." High school strong said.

"In the past, pilots used to think about air combat from an individual point of view, but now they put themselves into a 'big chess game' of systematic military training and joint victory, which not only has a more sensitive sense of touch, but also has a deeper understanding of the combat background and mission intention." Li Ling said that entering the new era, what we pursue is to forge the "first" sword in the furnace of the system and improve the contribution rate of joint victory.

Systematic training is like a symphony orchestra ensemble, and any instrument that is even one pitch higher will affect the overall timbre. The same is true for systematic military training.

Building a standard model is the most work done by Li Ling's team. They broke down the combat power modules one by one to develop new tactical standards and unified tactical phrases. During the interview, the reporter saw that each flight course training of the brigade has a standardized training flow chart, and even when the pilot should appear where and what actions to do, it must be carried out in accordance with the standard procedures.

Every time he was training, Li Ling asked to record the equipment and personal flight data. Tactical deduction and tactical research are first and foremost data talk.

In recent years, Li Ling has taken advantage of the new system and new mechanism to regularly organize joint training with other branches of the armed forces, and the road of training and preparing for war by relying on system support and aiming at system victory has become wider and wider. Perspective switching, concept clashing, and target fusion are like steel flowers bursting out of the furnace, forging new sharp edges.

"Things are sweet and bitter, and those who taste them know; the Tao has dangers, and those who perform them know." The more you discover the power of the system, the more you can understand your own worries.

Walking into the brigade's office building and air service building, on the ceiling of the corridor, every few meters there is a "warning board" - "where are the combat opponents", "what equipment are they", "what are they doing", "what should we do"...

It is in this kind of "momentary introspection" that Li Ling and his comrades-in-arms flew into a new era and continued to embark on a new journey.

During the interview, the fighters roared. Not long ago, Li Ling and his comrades-in-arms were given a new task. They are studying hard and practicing in actual combat, fighting in the long sky of the motherland and guarding the peace and tranquility of the mountains and rivers under the wings.

Short comments

Be the forerunner of flying for battle

With lofty ambitions, fight for miles and miles in the sky.

In the journey of the People's Air Force to enter the threshold of the strategic air force in the new era, there is a flying brigade commander who is particularly eye-catching. He grew up in the ace unit and brought out a sharp knife unit; he was a pathfinder for the transformation of the air force, and he was also a road builder for iterative development; he was a pilot who could win battles and a commander who led training in battle. His name is Li Ling, a pioneer who flew in battle and pioneered towards war.

The flock of geese soaring high is inseparable from the leading geese; the fighter plane is flying in the air, and it is inseparable from the long plane. Striving for a new journey and flying into a new era requires a large number of doers, and even more needs a large number of pioneers. Li Ling's heart is to the blue sky, chasing dreams and the sky, integrating himself into the cause of strengthening the army and winning wars, actively participating in the transformation and construction of the air force, and becoming a person who walks in the forefront of the times and in front of the war. He set high standards, practiced the oath of "the motherland uses the first to name us, and we use the first to repay the motherland", is committed to studying flight, and has the courage to seize the first; he has a new concept of thinking, insists on flying with his mind, wins with wisdom, looks for the magic weapon to win in the data, and gathers system advantages in sharing; he has a strong sense of actual combat, always plans the use of forces according to the needs of the battlefield, conducts advanced training according to the requirements of actual combat, actively promotes the deep coupling of combat training, and advances into the "no man's land" of future air combat.

Future wars are bloody and rational; they are both scientific and technological warfare and intelligent warfare. In order to win a modern war, it is not possible to follow the rules and regulations, nor can it be done step by step, and there must be a forerunner and leader like Li Ling. Especially at present, our army is in an in-depth promotion period of reform, reshaping, transformation and construction, and there will inevitably be more fields to be opened up, more new quality combat forces to be built, and more tactics and training methods to be explored. Only when commanders at all levels consciously learn from Li Ling, conform to the transformation, dare to be the first, bravely stand at the head of the tide, make bold breakthroughs, firmly shoulder the responsibility of seeking victory, strictly forge the sharp knife for victory, and concentrate their efforts to enhance their ability to win wars, can they train a crack army that can fight well and ensure that once something happens, they can go up and win the war.

Source: China Military Network - People's Liberation Army Daily