MOSCOW. Oct 25 (Interfax) - A mixed Russian-Serbian air defense group has been formed as part of the Slavic Shield 2019 exercise being hosted by Serbia, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
"Units of the joint group have held drills and are going to embark on a combat duty mission to protect the airspace of the city of Belgrade, the Batajnica Air Base, and the central industrial district of Serbia," the ministry said in a report seen by Interfax.
"During its combat duty mission, the joint air defense group's units will practice repelling mock enemy large-scale airstrikes amid electronic jamming," it said.
The Russian-Serbian air defense group is deployed at the Batajnica Air Base.
Crews operating S-400 surface-to-air missile defense systems and Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile and gun systems from the Russian Aerospace Forces and also Neva-M1T and KUB-M anti-aircraft missile systems from Serbia's Air Force and Air Defense Force will take part in such joint maneuvers for the first time, it said.
This is the first Slavic Shield exercise. It consists of two stages and trains the interaction and joint engagement of air defense units of the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Serbian Air Force and Air Defense.
The first stage of the exercise took place in September at the Russian Aerospace Forces' combat training center in the Astrakhan region and involved missile defense and electronic warfare units of the Russian Aerospace Forces, air defense units of Serbia's Air Force, S-400 and Pantsir-S systems, radars, and other military and special-purpose hardware.