RUSSIAN GENERAL PRAISES PERFORMANCE OF CIS UNIFIED AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM’S ON-DUTY FORCES DURING EXERCISE

Interfax News Agency
Central Asia General Newswire
April 25, 2006 Tuesday 7:36 PM MSK

On-duty forces of the CIS Unified Air Defense System have accomplished
all missions of the command post exercise (CPX) held on Tuesday,
Lieutenant General Aitech Bizhev, Russian Air Force deputy
commander-in-chief, told Interfax-Military News Agency.

“Over 10 issues related to strengthening of CIS aerial borders were
worked on during the exercise held in the entire area of responsibility
of the Unified Air Defense System,” Bizhev said.

“Army general Vladimir Mikhailov, Air Force commander-in-chief, who
was in charge of the exercise, expressed satisfaction with actions of
national armies of CIS member states that took part in the exercise
and rated them as excellent,” he noted.

Bizhev recalled that the exercise involved air defense and air force
units of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan and Ukraine.

He stressed that the exercise focused on rehearsing actions of
electronic warfare, surface-to-air missile, and aviation units of the
Unified Air Defense System while accomplishing combat duty missions.

S-300, S-125, S-75 and Buk air defense missile systems and over 60
aircraft of all participating nations were involved.

“In particular, some missions were accomplished by the personnel of
Russian air bases in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan,” Bizhev said.

Mutual maneuvers of Su-24, Su-27 and MiG-31 planes of Russia,
Kazakhstan and Belarus were a success, he went on. Moreover, on-duty
air defense forces and assets were used to engaged a supersonic
stratospheric target in an interaction with the A-50 long-range
AWACS plane.

“Aircraft of NATO countries observed the exercise. They were especially
active in the north and northwest,” he said.