China launches 2026 combat drills highlighting joint force warfare and next-generation strike power.

China’s People’s Liberation Army began its 2026 annual training cycle with large-scale joint exercises featuring J-20 stealth fighters, DF-17 hypersonic missiles, and advanced unmanned systems. The drills signal Beijing’s focus on rapid transition from peacetime to combat readiness amid rising regional and technological competition.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has formally launched its 2026 military training cycle, conducting system-wide exercises on the first working day of the year that brought together air, naval, ground, and rocket forces under simulated combat conditions. According to state broadcaster China Central Television, with reporting relayed by the Global Times, the drills were designed to test rapid deployment, joint integration, and command coordination using some of the PLA’s most advanced platforms, including J-20 stealth fighter aircraft, Type 055 guided missile destroyers, unmanned aerial and ground systems, and the DF-17 hypersonic missile operated by the PLA Rocket Force.
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China’s PLA opened its 2026 training cycle with joint drills featuring J-20 fighters, DF-17 missiles, Type 055 Destroyer, and Type 054A frigate, highlighting combat readiness. (Picture source: Chinese MoD)

Footage broadcast by CCTV confirms that the opening phase of the training focused on realistic battlefield scenarios rather than symbolic demonstrations. On land, units of the 79th Group Army carried out live-force small-unit integration drills centered on the seizure of a hostile position. These maneuvers featured extensive use of unmanned equipment, including aerial drones and quadruped robotic platforms. According to Liu Wenyu, a brigade member quoted in the report, the PLA now employs an integrated drone combat system combining reconnaissance drones, bomb-dropping platforms, smoke-laying drones, and first-person-view loitering munitions. This reflects a broader doctrinal shift toward intelligentized warfare, where unmanned systems act as force multipliers in close combat and urban operations.

Naval elements of the exercise were conducted by a destroyer detachment departing from Qingdao naval base in eastern China. The formation included the Type 055 Renhai-class destroyer Nanchang, the Type 052D destroyer Xining, and the Type 054A frigate Weifang. The Type 055, displacing an estimated 12,000 tons and measuring approximately 180 meters in length, represents the largest and most capable surface combatant currently in service with the PLA Navy. Equipped with up to 128 vertical launch system cells, the class is designed to conduct long-range air defense, anti-ship, anti-submarine, and land-attack missions, while escorting high-value assets such as aircraft carriers. CCTV reported that naval training covered complex ship handling, live-fire gunnery against surface and coastal targets, decoy-assisted firing, anti-frogman defense, and navigation under emergency conditions including power loss and hull breaches, reinforcing the PLAN’s emphasis on survivability and sustained combat operations.

In the air domain, the PLA Air Force deployed multiple J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighters from operational airfields on the first day of training. The J-20, a twin-engine, single-seat aircraft developed by Chengdu Aerospace Corporation, is designed for air superiority and long-range interception missions. Powered by two WS-10B engines, it is reported to reach speeds of up to Mach 2 and has an operational range of approximately 6,000 kilometers. During the opening sorties, J-20 units immediately entered confrontational training, including beyond-visual-range air combat. CCTV noted that demanding activities such as nighttime aerial refueling, long-duration flights, and operations over distant seas and border regions have become routine, highlighting the aircraft’s role within integrated system-versus-system engagements rather than isolated air combat.

The most strategically significant component of the opening exercises involved the PLA Rocket Force and the DF-17 hypersonic missile. CCTV footage shows DF-17 missiles erected in vertical launch position on their transporter erector launcher vehicles during simulated launch procedures at a field training ground. The DF-17, also known as Dongfeng-17, is a road-mobile, solid-fueled medium-range ballistic missile carrying a DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle. Mounted on a 10x10 truck chassis, the system is designed for high mobility and independent operation. The missile has an estimated range of 1,800 to 2,500 kilometers, a length of around 11 meters, and a launch weight of approximately 15,000 kilograms. After boost phase, the hypersonic glide vehicle separates and maneuvers within the upper atmosphere at speeds exceeding Mach 5, flying at lower and less predictable trajectories than traditional ballistic reentry vehicles.

Chinese military analysts and U.S. intelligence assessments have repeatedly highlighted the DF-17’s ability to evade legacy missile defense systems due to its maneuverability and reduced radar signature during the glide phase. Designed to carry either conventional or nuclear warheads with a reported circular error probable of only a few meters, the DF-17 is intended to strike high-value targets such as forward air bases, command centers, and naval formations across the Western Pacific. Its appearance in routine training, rather than parade formations, signals that the system has moved beyond initial operational capability and is now embedded in regular Rocket Force combat preparation.

CCTV also confirmed that other services, including the Joint Logistics Support Force and the People’s Armed Police Force, conducted synchronized inaugural training activities. In recent years, system-wide joint training has become standard practice across the PLA, with new equipment and newly formed units integrated into a unified operational framework. The inclusion of hypersonic missiles, fifth-generation fighters, large surface combatants, and unmanned systems in the same training cycle illustrates how China is refining its joint warfighting architecture to operate under high-intensity, multi-domain conflict conditions.

The launch of the 2026 training cycle comes only days after large-scale PLA drills conducted around Taiwan in late December, reinforcing perceptions of sustained operational pressure and strategic signaling. For U.S. and allied defense planners, the technical maturity and visible operational integration of systems such as the DF-17, J-20, and Type 055 underscore the pace of China’s military modernization and the growing complexity of the challenge posed by the PLA’s evolving doctrine in the Indo-Pacific.