At the break of a summer dawn, several carrier-based aircraft from a certain base of the Naval Aviation University powered into the sky. Linking up with early warning aircraft to form a network, they sped toward the designated maritime airspace. Climbing, diving, launching… The student pilots steadily maneuvered their fighters, launching surprise attacks on targets and successfully accomplishing the assigned mission.

Without pausing to rest, the debrief commenced. Drawing on insights gained from recent studies of Xi Jinping on Strengthening the Military (Volume IV), flight instructors guided the students in analyzing problems encountered during the mission, identifying causes, seeking solutions, and formulating improvement plans to hone their combat capabilities. This is a microcosm of the base’s efforts to deeply study and implement Xi Jinping’s thought on strengthening the military, closely integrating it with actual mission requirements.

“President Xi pointed out that we must take the ability to fight and win wars as the starting point and goal of our personnel work, closely follow the evolution of warfare trends, and enhance the supply capability and quality of personnel for combat readiness and warfighting. This important discourse charts the course for our personnel cultivation work,” explained the base leadership. They treat Xi Jinping on Strengthening the Military (Volume IV) as a crucial guide for teaching and organizing training, adhering to a combat-oriented direction, and cultivating capable, courageous, and skilled warriors through combat-focused training practices. Simultaneously, they actively guide officers and soldiers to consciously apply the Party’s innovative theories to solve bottlenecks restricting combat capability enhancement, strengthening their abilities through realistic training, and continually driving the transformation of student pilots from being “capable of flying and operating from carriers” to being “capable of fighting and joint operations.”

Recently, during a flight training assessment at the base, a student failed to grasp changes in the battlefield situation, misjudged the “enemy scenario” at a critical moment, and consequently missed the attack window. Although the student’s flying technique ranked among the top in individual assessments, the evaluation panel’s final verdict was “fail.” “A combat mindset is the prerequisite for victory and the key to generating combat capability,” the panel’s response was firm and clear.

This issue drew high attention from the base’s Party Committee. To instill a combat mindset in students from the “first flight” stage, the base Party Committee researched and explored a mechanism involving “instructor-led training, psychological counseling, and tactical reshaping,” integrating realistic combat training throughout the entire student cultivation process. Through organizing confrontation exercises, combat case debriefs and analysis, and comprehensive information analysis, they propel students’ transformation from “operators” to “combatants.” In a subsequent assessment, facing sudden electronic interference and “enemy aircraft” raids, this student accurately assessed the “enemy situation,” decisively evaded, and launched a counterattack, ultimately passing the assessment.

As the assessment concluded, watching another group of students spread their wings, soon to join frontline units, the base leadership stated with conviction, “Students graduating and joining the troops is not the end point of our work, but a new starting point for talent cultivation. We will dynamically optimize student training programs based on feedback from the units, providing solid talent support for the combat capability development of the forces.”

As the assessment concluded, watching another group of students spread their wings, soon to join frontline units, the base leadership stated with conviction, “Students graduating and joining the troops is not the end point of our work, but a new starting point for talent cultivation. We will dynamically optimize student training programs based on feedback from the units, providing solid talent support for the combat capability development of the forces.” (Looking into the New Era)