DONGUZ RANGE, Orenburg region. Sept 23 (Interfax) - The active phase of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's (SCO) Peace Mission 2021 counterterrorism exercise has begun at the Donguz training range in Russia's Orenburg region with combat aircraft delivering bomb strikes on mock enemy targets.
"Two units of Russian [Sukhoi] Su-34 multirole fighter bombers and Su-25 attack planes and one unit of Su-25 attack planes of the Kazakh Armed Forces took part in the maneuvers. Their crews delivered bomb strikes on command centers, concentrations of military hardware, ammunition and fuel depots and other key facilities of the mock enemy using fragmentation bombs," the press service for Russia's Central Military District said.
Msta-S 152mm self-propelled artillery systems and Grad multiple launch rocket systems backed the air force, it said. After that, servicemen of Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, China, and Russia neutralized mock militant units, enabling landing forces from Belarus, India, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Pakistan to take an advantageous position for a subsequent attack.
The Peace Mission 2021 exercise began at the Donguz training range in the Orenburg region on September 20 and lasts through September 24. Central Military District Commander Col. Gen. Alexander Lapin is overseeing the maneuvers, which involve about 5,500 personnel and over 1,200 weapons and pieces of military and specialized hardware.