MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax-AVN) - A-50 AWACS aircraft, participating in the CIS Unified Air Defense System command-post exercise, have increased CIS combat capabilities, Colonel General Boris Cheltsov, chief of staff of the Russian Air Force, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
"One of the major features of the ongoing exercise consists in the fact that it employs two A-50 AWACS aircraft, tasked with providing radar support in the western and the southern directions, and homing CIS fighters in on the targets," Cheltsov said.
He noted that an A-50 was to have flown to Armenia under the plan of the exercise, but the Georgian authorities had not allowed the aircraft to fly over the Georgian territory. At the present time the aircraft is flying over the North Caucasus. The second A-50 in service with the Russian Air Force is deployed over Belarus.
The command post exercise is seeing participation of air force and air defense units of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.
In addition to A-50s, the exercise also involved eight Tupolev Tu-22M3, Tu-95MS, and Tu-160 long-range aircraft. "All of them are stripped of armament," Cheltsov said.
The command post exercise is seeing participation of a total of 56 aircraft and a helicopter. Flights are carried out over Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. A total of 60 flights, including Mikoyan MiG-31 fighter and Sukhoi Su-24 tactical bomber sorties, are scheduled.
In the course of the exercise, CIS Unified Air Defense System units refine interoperability during operations against CIS airspace trespassers.