Ministry of National Defense of People Repub : Chinese naval escort taskforces complete mission handover

GULF OF ADEN, Jan. 3(ChinaMil) -- The 24th and 25th Chinese naval escort taskforces held a mission handover ceremony in west waters of Gulf of Aden on the morning of January 2, 2017, local time.

Bai Yaoping, commanding officer of the 24th Chinese naval escort taskforce, and Zhao Jicheng, commanding officer of the 25th Chinese naval escort taskforce, co-chaired the handover ceremony.

The 24th escort taskforce, which is composed of the missile destroyer Harbin, missile frigate Handan and supply ship Dongpinghu from the Chinese PLA Navy's North China Sea Fleet, has completed its 4-month escort mission starting from Sept. 2, 2016.

After the mission handover, the two taskforces jointly escorted merchant ships navigating from the east of the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea. So far, the Chinese naval escort ships have fulfilled escort tasks for 1003 times in the Gulf of Aden. After the joint escort was accomplished, the two taskforces sailed separately.

The 25th Chinese naval escort taskforce set sail from Zhanjiang in southern China's Guangdong Province on Dec. 17, 2016. The taskforce is composed of the missile frigates Hengyang and Yulin, the supply ship Honghu, two ship-borne helicopters, dozens of special combat soldiers, and more than 700 seamen and officers.