MOSCOW. Nov 29 (Interfax-AVN) - Airborne Commander Georgy Shpak and a group of officers and generals of the Airborne Staff started the second day of work in the airborne operations force within the unified federal group in Chechnya, a spokesman for the Airborne Staff said on Thursday.
Shpak heard reports of commanders of two regiment-size and one battalion-size task forces about the accomplishment of missions related to search and elimination of rebel leaders in the task forces' areas of responsibility. He also met unified federal group commander Lieutenant General Vladimir Moltenskoi.
The group of officers led by Lieutenant General Vladimir Shulikov, deputy airborne commander on armament, is studying the organization of paratroopers' activities in stationing areas, provision of ammo, materiel, fuel and lubricants to the units within the force. The main attention is paid to the state of combat equipment, its servicing and repairs.
At present the unified federal group includes two regiment-size and one battalion-size airborne task forces as well as an airborne artillery battalion and a composite unit of the 45th separate airborne reconnaissance regiment. The total number of paratroopers is some 3,000 and their stationing areas are located in the Vedeno and Nozhai-Yurt districts of Chechnya.