MOSCOW. Aug 3 (Interfax) - Servicemen of a Russian military base in Armenia held an exercise involving fighter jets and unmanned aerial vehicles amid the recent deterioration in the relationships between Yerevan and Baku.
"More than 1,500 soldiers, over 500 pieces of military hardware, including MiG-29 fighter jets, Mil Mi-24P, Mi-8MTV helicopters, and advanced unmanned aerial vehicles are taking part in bilateral battalion tactical drills with units of the Russian military base in Armenia," Russia's Southern Military District said in a statement obtained by Interfax on Saturday.
The drills involved a wing of MiG-29 fighter jets from the Russian airbase in Armenia, which "performed the tasks of fire support to a battalion tactical group at the Alagyaz mountainous training range."
"The pilots of operational tactical aviation have destroyed a mock enemy command post during the bilateral battalion tactical drill in the woody highlands. The MiG-29 crews accomplished the flight tasks in pairs and in a wing with electronic launches of guided missiles on the targets identified by the firing crews of the drones of the reconnaissance-strike system of the battalion tactical group of the major formation," the Southern Military District said.
The 102nd Russian military base is deployed in the Armenian city of Gyumri. On August 20, 2010, Russia and Armenia extended the agreement on the military base's deployment until 2044.
The battalion tactical drills took place simultaneously in eight regions of the North Caucasus, Transcaucasia, in the lower reaches of the Volga River and the Don River, including in Dagestan, North Ossetia, Chechnya, the Volgograd and Rostov regions, as well as at the Russian military bases in Abkhazia, Armenia and in South Ossetia, according to the Southern Military District.
On August 1, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said the Azerbaijani-Turkish large-scale tactical and flight tactical drills involving live fire practice were ongoing in Nakhchivan.