Russia hosts CIS air-defence exercise

ITAR-TASS news agency
20 Aug 05

Moscow, 20 August: Combat Commonwealth 2005, a live-firing exercise
of the CIS combined air-defence system, begins on Monday 22 August
at the Ashuluk range in Astrakhan Region.

Combined-arms and other units of the air forces and air-defence troops
of Russia, Armenia, Belarus and Tajikistan will jointly practise
interoperability in a broad range of areas. Four types of aviation
will be involved – fighter, ground-attack, bomber and reconnaissance.

The deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian armed forces for the
CIS air-defence system, Lt-Gen Aytech Bizhev, outlined the exercise
scenario in an interview in today’s edition of the Krasnaya Zvezda
newspaper. In the 10 years since the combined air-defence system was
set up, he said, its members’ military authorities have restored the
information sharing on airspace violations that existed between them
prior to the collapse of the USSR. This exchange is now automated and
flows between the central command posts of the Belarusian, Kazakh,
Ukrainian and Tajik air forces and air defences.

In the scenario for the exercise, “bandit gangs” and “terrorist groups”
have become more active in the North Caucasus, and Armenia asks the
CIS for assistance. Russia, Belarus and Tajikistan then urgently
deploy forces to the region.

According to Gen Bizhev, the main feature of this exercise is that for
the first time a regional air-defence group will be set up from the
participants’ air-defence forces and assets. Command of the group
will be automated, with the four countries’ missile forces being
coordinated from a single command post.

The creation of regional interstate air-defence groups is one of the
main trends in the development of the combined CIS system. The plan is
to establish such groups in the future in the East European, Central
Asian and Caucasus regions. Russia and Belarus have already agreed
a package of documents on setting up a regional air-defence system.