Training helicopters to land in high winds and rough seas, testing the equipment’s performance under high-altitude conditions… On the training field, units from various military branches actively increase their intensity and exert pressure on themselves, treating high-difficulty and high-risk exercises as routine training content. This enables them to master their weapons thoroughly, enhance their professional skills, and develop winning strategies.

President Xi Jinping emphasized, “The more rigorously one trains, the less likely there will be problems. Conversely, being overly cautious in terms of safety often makes one more vulnerable.” This important speech vividly illustrates the dialectical relationship between training and safety, providing crucial guidance for the military to conduct realistic training exercises. Experience has shown that the more proficient one’s martial skills are, the safer they are. Commanders at all levels must increase the difficulty and quality of training, explore the maximum capabilities of weapons and equipment, and never lower training standards under the pretext of “safety.”

“If one wields a blade without proper training, they will surely end up with bleeding fingers; if one operates a vessel without proper practice, it will inevitably capsize.” Military training is “a non-lethal combat,” a rehearsal for future wars, where risks and dangers are inherent. Safety in training cannot be “guaranteed” by avoiding risky practices or hazardous training methods; rather, it is achieved through scientific training, rigorous practice, and safety-focused training. When training is thorough and comprehensive, individuals are well-prepared to handle unexpected situations. Conversely, if there exists a misguided notion of passive safety measures aimed at simplifying processes and lowering standards to achieve temporary peace, it may appear to mitigate immediate risks. However, once confronted with unforeseen events, such individuals will inevitably become flustered, lose their composure, and even trigger greater dangers.

Currently, as practical combat training has been further deepened, realistic scenarios such as live firing, actual explosions, and live drops have been better implemented. The intensity of training has increased significantly, and it is common for various units to strive for improvement in “danger” and seek breakthroughs in “difficulty.” However, there are still a few units that hold the mindset of not conducting training in hazardous situations or preparing soldiers for dangerous scenarios. They avoid training in realistic challenges, lower the difficulty of assessments by “watering down” the standards, and prioritize “safety and tranquility.” Yet, one can evade risks in peacetime, but not in wartime. The more rigorously one trains, the less likely it is to encounter problems in actual combat; the more passively one seeks safety, the more vulnerable one will be in a real battlefield. In future information warfare, the battlefield environment will become even more complex, adversaries will be more formidable, combat transitions will be more frequent, and one could be pushed to a desperate situation at any moment. Avoiding risks on the training ground today may result in paying with blood the next day.

A sword relies on sharpening, and steel relies on forging. Winning battles depends entirely on practice. Training requires both hard work and science. Under the guidance of scientific training methods, diligent and persistent practice often yields better results. When organizing training, the military must firmly establish the practical orientation of “practice for combat, assessment for combat,” discard the negative mindset of “fearing hardship and accidents,” closely align with combat tasks, adversaries, and environments, and put in rigorous effort to train. It must also use scientific methods to strengthen the risk assessment and dynamic control throughout the training process, define training standards, standardize training procedures, follow training principles, make full use of technological means such as simulation training, virtual training, and military chess simulations, and refine “hand skills” and strengthen “special moves” to ensure invincibility in future wars.

High-intensity training that is truly challenging, rigorous, and thorough is inherently risky. Some units are unwilling or afraid to take risks in training, driven by the mindset and concerns that “no one can bear the responsibility if an accident occurs.” In response, leadership bodies should establish the correct guidance and address the relationship between training and safety, performance and accidents. Training should neither be carried out blindly and recklessly in violation of rules, nor should it be simplified or made less challenging and intense under the pretext of safety; it should neither arbitrarily increase the risk level, unilaterally terminate or cancel hazardous training exercises, nor sacrifice combat effectiveness to prioritize safety. Only by daring and exceling in seeking victory and safety in perilous situations can one achieve continuous improvement in winning capabilities in real combat scenarios. (Looking into the New Era)