ST. PETERSBURG. July 7 (Interfax-AVN) - The command of the Western Military District has summed up a large-scale joint air force and air defense exercise last week, the district's chief spokesman said on Monday.
"Altogether, five air force regiments, seven air defense regiments, eight airfields, and two training sites were involved in the large-scale bilateral exercise. The exercise was held in the airspace of central Russia and in the northwest of the country. Surface-to-air missiles and radar forces of the Western Military District successfully rebuffed an aircraft raid and were able to protect strategic facilities from an air strike," Col. Oleg Kochetkov told Interfax-AVN.
Making active use of radio frequency interference, more than 30 fighters and bombers simultaneously entered the air space controlled by the Leningrad Air Defense Union at various altitudes and speeds. They flew both individually and in pairs or larger groups with between 5 and 15 meters between them.
The radar forces detected and tracked more than 150 targets, and S-300 surface-to-air missile systems made more than 300 electronic launches.
Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bombers and Su-24M attack aircraft trained in bombing at training sites in the regions of Tver and Leningrad, their crews receiving a performance assessment of 4.8 of a maximum of 5 points.
Practically all ground targets simulating elements of enemy airfields were destroyed with direct hits. The crews received their coordinates from an Su-24MR reconnaissance jet immediately before attacking them.
During an aerial interception session, Su-27 fighters were scrambled and simulated the shooting down of enemy planes as represented by Mikoyan MiG-29SMT fighters and MiG-31BM interceptors, flying at a distance of more than 150 kilometers.