The Series of Lectures on the “New Youth Global Competency Talent Training Program” — the First Lecture of the Spring Semester of 2023 Was Successfully Held

The first lecture of the “New Youth Global Competency Talent Training Program” of the spring semester of 2023 was successfully held online. The theme of the lecture was “Future Air Combat and National Security Strategy”. The number of real-time audience of universities across the country exceeded 2,300. The keynote speaker Professor Xu Bangnian, is a researcher, professor and doctoral supervisor of Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force Command College. He has profound knowledge in the fields of flight safety and stall spiral. He also has a deep understanding towards Chinese aeronautic and astronautic force construction and strategic goals.

Professor Xu began with the Gulf War and the Falklands War, and first introduced and summarized the characteristics of future air warfare. He used charts to compare the performance of medium-range missiles and close-range missiles, and pointed out that future air battles may be beyond-visual-range air combats that are likely to occur when they are not yet visible to the naked eye. Therefore, he emphasized the importance of technology in future air combat and maintaining national security.

The main content of the second part of the lecture is future fighter. Professor Xu successively introduced the fighters of different periods and countries. He combined the video to introduce the flight attitude, design features and improvement details of different fighters and the role of different fighters in the air combat. After that, he introduced the characteristics of different missiles, and emphasized the importance of current precision strike technology and multi-target attack technology on the battlefield. Taking China’s fighter J-20 as an example, Professor Xu introduced the characteristics of future fighters.

The third part of the lecture focused on the national security strategy. First of all, Professor Xu used a map to illustrate China’s geographical situation. He then introduced China’s economic development situation since 1979 through videos, thereby summarizing the current economic and political situation of China. He pointed out that in December 2017, the first National Security Strategy Report released by Japan and the United States had clearly listed China as a strategic competitor and elevated it to the strategic level. Until today, the United States is still very severe in suppressing China. In the face of such suppression, we should make full use of the knowledge and technology we have learned to make China stronger, and only when the motherland is truly strong can we achieve longer development.

Later, Professor Xu introduced the drones and micro air vehicles with rapid development in recent years. He introduced a miniature unmanned aircraft with only 8mm. People can use the base to remotely control the micro air vehicle to complete the flight maneuver. At present, China has successfully realized the autonomous flight of UAV swarms in unknown environments. And more young students have joined the UAV research and development team. Although China started late in the field of UAVs, certain results also have been achieved after rapid catch-up.

At the end of the lecture, Professor Xu guided students to watch the video of the fighter demonstration and answered students’ questions about future air combat and national security situation. He also expressed his confidence and expectations for the future development of national military fighters. He pointed out that students are the hope for the birth of new fighters and new combat ideas in the future.

Throughout the lecture, Professor Xu used humorous and simple language expressions, combined with pictures, videos and other ways to clearly show complex problems to students. He answered students’ questions thoroughly and patiently, and introduced the development process and future direction of the national military and fighter aircraft to students by combining practical cases, which won unanimous praise from students.

The “New Youth Global Competency Talent Training Program” is a youth international literacy ability training program in the new era established by the China Education Association for International Exchange, a unit directly under the Ministry of Education, together with relevant units, for domestic college students. The series of lectures of the program not only broadened students’ international vision, improved their critical thinking ability, but also cultivated students’ feelings of the country and home. It is hoped that students can continuously improve their abilities through the series of lectures and make efforts to build China into a great modern socialist country with leading comprehensive national strength and international influence.

Text: Song Jiayin

Picture: Song Jiayin

Editor: Tang Yinwen

Review: Li Qi

Translator: Li Qianqian