MOSCOW, May 24 (AVN) - The defence ministers of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Tajikistan approved the concept of the Combat Commonwealth 2001 coalition exercise, Lieutenant General Yuri Bondarev, Russian deputy Air Force commander in charge of the CIS Unified Air Defence System, said on Thursday.
During the exercise's first stage which is to happen from June 18 to 22 an inspection of on-duty forces of the Belarussian air defence will take place, Bondarev told the Military News Agency. Reduced combat crews of six S-200V surface-to-air missile battalions will conduct combat firing at the Telemba testing ground in the Chita region with the mission to hit three missile and two parachute targets faking unmanned and low-speed small-size aircraft.
During the training's second stage which is to take place from August 1 to 3 an inspection of the duty forces of the Belarussian and Russian Baltic Fleet air defence will happen. Combat crews of two Belarussian S-300 battalions and three Baltic Fleet S-300 battalions will conduct combat firing with the mission to hit missile targets faking unmanned aircraft.
A joint training of units and formations of the Armenian, Belarussian, Kazakh, Russian and Tajik Armed Forces are planned for August 30. They are to be held at the Ashuluk testing ground in Russia's Astrakhan region and Sary-Shagan testing ground in Kazakhstan. The training will be controlled from the Russian Air Force central command post. During the combat firing the parties plan to practice actions of the CIS joint air defence system's on-duty forces that are to prevent violations of the air borders of the countries involved in the training.