The development comes amid China’s massive effort in modernizing its military capabilities and recent live-fire military drills in the South China Sea. (Photo : Reuters)
Mainland China aims to increase police helicopter fleets to twice its number in a period of five years, according to a police aviation officer.
Liu Daolin, deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security's police aviation administration office, stated that the Chinese mainland has a total of 47 choppers, with 28 police chopper squads located in 18 provincial-level regions.
"The size of existing police helicopter fleets is usually small and their operational capability is weak, leading to less than 10 percent of mainland cities being covered by police aviation," Liu said.
"Meanwhile, the police in many border regions still have no helicopter squads," Liu stated on Tuesday at the 2015 China Helicopter Development Forum in Tianjin.
"Fortunately, heads of local public security departments have begun to realize the importance and usefulness of police aviation and have pledged to increase investment in the force," Liu said.
"According to our estimation, by the end of 2020 there will be about 50 police helicopter squads with nearly 100 helicopters on the mainland."
These police squads use the AC311s and AC312s helicopter models manufactured by the Aviation Industry Corp. of China, as well as other chopper classes purchased from foreign corporations such as the Italy-based AgustaWestland, Liu added.
Since its establishment in 1994, the police aviation group has deployed helicopters in major cities, such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, to be used for security watch, search and rescue efforts, and emergency response operations.
Liu said that other provinces that lack helicopter squads, such as Liaoning and Hunan, will be given police chopper forces in three or four major cities to cover the whole province, while the 12 current squads in other provinces will soon increase their fleets.
"Next, we will focus on helping police departments in central and western regions set up their aviation teams," he said.
Together, the Ministry of Public Security and the Civil Aviation Flight University of China have been training selected police officers as helicopter pilots since 2009. The Government Flying Service in Hong Kong also works with the ministry.
An initiative that started in 2013 has sent a few chosen helicopter squad officers to the United States to undergo tactical training, Liu said.
He added that 150 police offices in 25 provincial-level regions in the mainland utilize around 300 unmanned drones purchased within the two previous years.
"We estimate the number of police drones on the mainland will reach 1,000 before the end of 2020," Liu said.
