MOSCOW. Nov 30 (Interfax-AVN) - The Tsentr strategic command-and-staff drill, which is due to take place in August and September 2019, will be the main event of the year testing the combat readiness of Russian troops, the head of the General Staff's Main Directorate for Combat Training, Lt. Gen. Ivan Buvaltsev, said.
"More than 4,000 tactical and command-and-staff drills at various levels are planned for the 2019 training season. The Tsentr 2019 strategic command-and-staff drill will be the final and most important event testing the forces' readiness," Buvaltsev said in an article published by the Defense Ministry's newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda on Friday.
Buvaltsev told the press earlier that the exercise will be held in the Central Military District in August and September 2019.
The Central Military District is the largest in Russia. Its forces are stationed in three federal districts and 29 constituent territories, and the district occupies almost 50% of the country's territory. A number of military sites outside Russia, among them the 201st Military Base in Tajikistan, the joint military base in Kyrgyzstan, and units stationed in Kazakhstan are attached to the district.
"The Vostok 2018 operative, mobilization, and combat training event had a scale unprecedented in the history of the Russian Armed Forces. It involved about 300,000 servicemen, over 1,000 planes, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles, about 80 ships and support vessels, 36,000 tanks, armored personnel carriers, and other specialized hardware," Buvaltsev said.
The main stage of Vostok 2018, which took place at the Tsugol range of the Eastern Military District, "involved up to 3,500 servicemen of the People's Liberation Army of China, as well as military units of Mongolia," he said.
"The exercise allowed troops to hone their field, marine, and airborne skills and practice the operation of forces in the eastern sector and strategic areas of the sea and the ocean," Buvaltsev said.
"More than 18,000 drills of varying level and scale were held by the Russian Armed Forces in 2018, almost three times more than in 2017," he said.