ROSTOV-ON-DON. April 3 (Interfax) - Servicemen from the Russian military base of the Southern Military District in Armenia arrived at Bagramyan firing range for a joint battalion tactical exercise with servicemen of the Armenian Armed Forces, the press service of the district reports.
"Formations of the Russian military base of the Southern Military District stationed in Armenia at a mock alert signal conducted a 100 km battle march to the area of a bilateral battalion tactical exercise with servicemen of the Armenian Defense Ministry at the Bagramyan firing range," the report says.
It says that lowboy trailers were used during the march for the transfer of heavy tract armored vehicles of rifle, ordnance and tank formations to increase their mobility.
In the course of the exercise complex tasks of interaction of formations of different arms of service will be drilled, including the use of airborne and engineering assault groups, fire control in the system of reconnaissance fire channels, including tank channels. Besides, ordnance units will drill the application of anti-ordnance defense with the imaginary enemy and rifle formations will conduct sniping duels.
MiG-29 fighters and Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft, Mil Mi-8MT and Mi-24 helicopters of army aviation and a formation of unmanned aerial vehicles will render fire support from the air and monitor the actions of formations during the exercise and the firing at the forces and means of the imaginary enemy. All data will be transmitted from the cameras of unmanned aircraft in online mode to screens at the command post of the exercise permitting an objective evaluation of the performance of formations of the two countries in mock battle, the report says.
The tactical exercise led by formation commander Co. Vladimir Yelkanov and commander of the joint grouping of troops Maj. Gen. Tigran Pravanyan invovles some 2,000 servicemen and about 300 military vehicles. The exercise between the Gyumri and Yerevan military garrisons at Kamkhud, Bagramyan and Alagyaz ranges will last until April 14. The vehicles involved include infantry combat vehicles, tanks, armored personnel carriers, up-to-date reconnaissance, control and communication systems as well as tactical, fighter, army and unmanned aviation.