COORDINATORS OF CIS JOINT AIR DEFENCE SYSTEM MEET IN ARMENIA
Kazinform, Kazakhstan
UzReport.com, Uzbekistan
Feb 14 2007
A meeting of the coordinating committee of the CIS Joint Air Defence
System and a muster of air force and air defence commanders open in
the Armenian capital Yerevan on Wednesday.
Russian Air Force Deputy Commander Aitech Bizhev told ITAR-TASS that
ten questions of strengthening the CIS air frontiers would be reviewed
and tasks for 2007 outlined at the meeting chaired by Russian Air Fore
Commander Vladimir Mikhailov, who is the chief of the coordinating
committee, Itar-Tass reported.
"A Caucasus joint regional air defence system will be presented at the
meeting. We shall familiarise all air force and air defence commanders
of the CIS countries with the new system that will comprise air forces
and air defence systems of Russia and Armenia," Bizhev said.
He said that Caucasus regional system would be similar to the
Russian-Belarussian air defence system the formation of which is
nearing completion.
The coordinating committee held meetings a year ago in Minsk and
Kaliningrad, "that is, at the Eastern European theatre of military
operation. We have conducted exercises that showed how the system
would work. Now we shall show how the interaction between air defence
troops of Russia and of air forces and air defence of Armenia interact
and jointly fulfil a combat task," Bizhev said.
He said that Russia’s 102nd military base is located in Yerevan. It
has air defence troops armed with anti-aircraft systems S-300.
Russia also has an air base with MiG-29 jet fighters in Erebuni.
The Armenian air defence was renovated in 2006 with Russia’s
assistance. Equipment, control and communications systems were
repaired, and the Armenian military retrained for operating S-300.
"The Caucasus joint regional system will be the second step after the
Belarussian one to create an air defence ‘forefield’. The third stage
of the projects is the creation of a similar joint regional system
in the Central Asian collective security region. The committee will
decide in which country – Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan – the headquarters
of the Central Asian joint regional system will be based," Bizhev said.
"In prospect, we plan creating, most likely on the basis of the
Tashkent air defence infrastructure, a control post in the Central
Asian region. Preparedness of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is about
similar, and for this reason it has not been yet decided which we
choose," he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
