MOSCOW. Dec 10 (Interfax-AVN) - On-duty crews of Russian air defense fighter aviation have prevented some 10 violations of Russian airspace by foreign aircraft this year.
"Moreover, fighter aviation crews have been put on high alert some 600 times," Air Force Chief-of-Staff Colonel General Boris Cheltsov told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
He said that "air defense units have been put on high alert 200 times and radio-technical troops 2,500 times to prevent Russian airspace violations."
Cheltsov stressed that "the tension of combat duty in the sphere of protecting the Russian aerial state border remains high." 45 violations of airspace application rules and some 10 border violations by aerostats have been registered this year, Cheltsov noted.
"On-duty servicemen of air defense and air force have detected and tracked some 200,000 aerial targets, including over 100,000 foreign ones. Over 1,000 warplanes and over 300 aerial scouts were among them," Cheltsov said.
He added that "Russian air defense troops are in good combat condition and capable to accomplish missions related to the protection of the country's aerial borders any moment."