COMBINED CIS AIR DEFENSE EXERCISE IN THE PIPELINE
RIA Novosti, Russia
2005-04-05 13:21
BALASHIKHA, Moscow Region (RIA Novosti) – The exercise of the CIS
Combined Air Defense System is to involve 56 fixed-wing and one
rotary-wing aircraft, Colonel-General Boris Cheltsov, chief of staff
of the Russian Air Force (RusAF), told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
According to him, such exercises are conducted biannually. Honing
the interoperability skills is to involve intercept of intruders and
rescuing aircraft in distress.
“The exercise also it to involve the Russian Air Force’s Tu-160
and Tu-95 strategic bombers that will land at a Belarus airbase,”
the general said, adding that two A-50 airborne warning and control
system (AWACS) aircraft were to be used in the exercise.
“One of them is to operate in the Belarus airspace and the other in the
south of Russia. There were plans to use it in the Armenian airspace
but Georgia did not grant it flyover rights,” Cheltsov emphasized.
Lieutenant-General Aitech Bizhev, RusAF’s deputy commander-in-chief
for the CIS Combined AD System, said that the Russian A-50 AWACS
plane would cue Belarus fighters to their targets in Belarus. He
also mentioned that CIS aircraft would exercise joint maneuvering
and intercept fast threats at high altitude.
“Russian aircraft stationed at Kant airbase in Kyrgyzstan, in
conjunction with the Tajik Air Force, are to participate, however, the
weather conditions there remain adverse,” Bizhev said. “In all, eight
CIS member states are to participate in the exercise, namely Armenia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.”