EIGHT CIS STATES HOLD BIGGEST-EVER AIR DEFENCE EXERCISE

Channel One TV, Moscow
25 Apr 06

[Presenter] The CIS countries are holding major air defence exercises
on defending the air borders of the commonwealth. Channel One
correspondent Anton Stepanenko is following the manoeuvres from the
Russian air force’s central command post and is live on air. Anton,
give us the details.

[Correspondent] The command and headquarters exercise has been
under way for two hours now, and I should repeat that this is the
biggest exercise of recent years working on pooling the air defence
effort, resources and forces of CIS countries. There are eight states
taking part in all [Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine] and, as of 1200 hours [0900 gmt]
there are up to 60 aircraft in the air in the entire CIS air space –
some of these are playing the role of invader and the other half are
to intercept them. Three Russian military bases are also involved,
in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.

[Boris Cheltsov, chief of main headquarters and first deputy
commander-in-chief of the Russian air force] The main objective of
every training exercise is to polish the skills of the command bodies
in practice to deal with violations of the state border, with aircraft
which need to be seen off, and to assist those who find themselves
overtaken by events. The most important thing is close cooperation
in performing these tasks, with a single management structure and
information-intelligence system.

[Correspondent] This is the scenario for the exercise: the
military-political situation has become strained on the western and
southern borders of the CIS and attempts are being made to violate
the commonwealth’s air borders to carry out reconnaissance flights.

CIS air defence forces are currently seeking to prevent these
incursions. I should add that for the first time the air defence
forces will be working with targets in the stratosphere.

[The one-day exercise includes “air defence force action in the event
of terrorists hijacking an aircraft”, Russian Military News Agency
Interfax-AVN reported (0420 gmt). Col-Gen Cheltsov told reporters
NATO intelligence aircraft had been observed monitoring the exercise;
ITAR-TASS news agency (0756 gmt) quoted him saying “At 1000 [0700 gmt]
on the north-western borders of Belarus and Russia we noted Swedish
and Finnish air defence activity. Initially two NATO aircraft were
operating in this area, this then increased to five. This is standard
practice in the military.”]