DEFENCE MINISTER INFORMS PUTIN OF FORTHCOMING CIS AIR-DEFENCE EXERCISE

ITAR-TASS news agency
24 Apr 06

Moscow, 24 April: CIS member states will hold a major air-defence
exercise on Tuesday [25 April], Russian Deputy Prime Minister and
Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov has told the Russian president.

Ivanov said that “63 aircraft, including helicopters, most of them
belonging to Russia” will be involved in the exercise. “Russian
aircraft will land at airfields in Belarus and Kazakhstan, and their
aircraft will land at our airfields,” the minister said.

The CIS unified air-defence system will hold a one-day command-post
exercise on 25 April, involving control bodies and duty units. Lt-Gen
Aytech Bizhev, deputy commander of the Russian air force, told
ITAR-TASS that air force, anti-aircraft and air-defence units of
the armed forces of eight CIS member states – Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine –
will be involved in the exercise.

“More than 10 tasks of various kinds aimed at reinforcing the air
borders of the CIS will be practised during the exercise,” he said.

“These will include preventing instances of airspace violation and
hijacking of an aircraft, and preventing terrorists from seizing an
aircraft”. According to Bizhev, “three A-50 aircraft will be involved
in the command-post exercise, the crews of four MiG-31 aircraft
will carry out an air manoeuvre flying from Kazakhstan to Russian
territory and from Russian territory back to Kazakhstan, and Su-24 and
Su-27 aircraft will perform an air manoeuvre flying from Belarusian
territory to Russia and in the opposite direction”. “Duty units and
assets designed to hit supersonic targets in the stratosphere will
be employed for the first time,” the general said.

According to Bizhev, “Russian air bases in Armenia, and at Kant
[Kyrgyzstan] and Dushanbe [Tajikistan] will be used, and over 80
frontline, fighter and army aviation aircraft, including helicopters,
will be involved in the exercise”. “Long-range aviation aircraft, as
well as all subunits of radio-radar troops and missile air-defence
troops, which are part of the CIS unified air-defence system, will
also be involved.”

Russian Air Force Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Mikhaylov will lead
the exercise from the central command post of the Russian air force.