The China-Germany joint medical military exercise, code-named “Combined Aid-2016”, kicked off at a training base of the PLA Third Military Medical University in Chongqing, China, on the morning of October 20, 2016.

It is China’s first joint medical military exercise with European militaries and the first such exercise held in China between Chinese military medical troops and foreign militaries.

The joint exercise takes the humanitarian medical rescue in earthquake disasters as its subject. Medical troops from China and Germany will establish a joint commanding center to organize the medical rescue operations in the designated area of the quake-hit country.

The Chinese participating troops are mostly from the PLA Third Military Medical University while the German troops of this exercise are mainly from the Rapid Medical Response Regiment of the Bundeswehr Medical Service.

In the next few days, the two sides will organize a series of activities including integrated training, desktop deduction, actual-troop exercise, exercise observation, academic exchange, and evaluation and summary.

The focus of the exercise is on earthquake first aid, mass treatment, medical airlift, epidemic prevention and elimination, joint command, self-protection and other subjects in order to improve emergency medical rescue and collaboration capabilities between China and Germany.

The exercise will be joint, real and innovative. With the introduction of advanced intelligent simulation robots, wearable training modules, isolation tents and other advanced health equipment, the exercise aims to further test and improve the joint emergency rescue capability.