THE JOINT SHIELD
by Vladimir Fedosenko
Rossiiiskaya Gazeta (supplement to the Soyuz Belarus-Rossia issue),
August 25, 2005, p. 3
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
August 29, 2005, Monday
It’s already the fourth day of the Combat Commonwealth-2005 joint
exercise, which recently began on the Ashuluk firing range in Russia.
Colonel Alexander Drobyshevskky, chief of the press service of
the Russian Air Force, said that representatives of the Russian,
Belarusian, Tajik and Armenian armies are involved. Kazakhstan and
Kyrgyzstan conducted a similar exercise a bit earlier, which is why
they decided to send their observers instead of anti-aircraft units.
Four branches of the Air Force participate in Combat Commonwealth for
the first time over the ten-year history of this exercise: fighters,
assault planes, bombers and intelligence planes. Fighters simulate
dogfights, and the Su-25 assault planes and the Su-24 bombers will
deliver strikes on ground-based targets. (…)
Over 2,000 servicemen and the S-300, S-125 and S-75 anti-aircraft
complexes, the Su-24 bombers, the Su-25 assault planes, the Su-27,
MiG-29 and MiG-31 fighters, and the A-50 long-range radio-locating
surveillance plane are involved in the exercise.
The Russian and Belarusian defense ministers reached an agreement to
supply the S-300 PMU2 anti-aircraft complexes to Minsk (at present
the Belarusian Army uses the obsolete S-300 PS complexes). (…)
The OSA-1T anti-aircraft complex, which was tested on the Domanovo
firing range of the Belarusian Air Force, participates in the exercise
in Ashuluk. A representative of the Tetraedr scientific-industrial
enterprise, which modernized this complex, stated that the OSA-1T is
equipped with a principally new guidance system.
It should be noted that the exercise in Ashuluk is a serious test of
the Russian-Belarusian regional anti-aircraft system. The results of
the exercise will be finalized on August 30. (…)
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov stated that the exercise is
a success. He noted that Russian and Belarusian units show a high
level of integration. He said that Russian and Belarusian units have
created a joint logistics system.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress