MINSK, August 8 (AVN) - Units of two Belarussian air defence missile brigades will hold live firing on Russian testing grounds in late August, Air Defence Commander Lieutenant General Valery Kostenko told the Military News Agency on Wednesday.
Within the framework of the Russian-Belarussian joint training two Belarussian air defence missile battalions will make combat launches on the Baltic Fleet testing ground located in the Kaliningrad region on August 22. Another two battalions will head for the Ashuluk testing ground in the Astrakhan region. One of them will hold planned live firing, the other will take part in the Combat Commonwealth 2001 coalition training of the CIS unified air defence system.
For the first time two Belarussian air defence regiments armed with S-200V surface-to-air missile systems held live firing on the Telemba testing ground in the Trans-Baikal in June this year. According to Kostenko, thanks to the 1996 agreement the Belarussian air defence troops have no brigades or separate regiments with unskilled servicemen.