MOSCOW. June 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Military transport planes of the Russian Air Force have started airlifting armor to the Far East in the framework of a large-scale military exercise launched on Wednesday.
"Three IL-76 Candid military transport planes loaded with armor left the Koltsovo airfield in Yekaterinburg for the Far East on Wednesday," a spokesman for the Defense Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Seven more Candids will arrive at Koltsovo in Wednesday to take armor and personnel aboard, he said.
About 50 IL-76, AN-22 Cock and AN-124 Condor military transport planes will be refueled and take military hardware aboard in Koltsovo during the Mobilnost 2004 exercise. Civilian IL-86 Camber planes will do the same in Koltsovo, too, the spokesman said.
Military transports and civilian aircraft will also airlift marine units from the Kola peninsula and paratroopers from Pskov to the Far East. A total of 800 servicemen are to be airlifted.
"Civil aircraft are taking part in servicemen's transportation in the framework of an exercise for the first time," the spokesman said.
The chief goal of the exercise, which will be directed by Anatoly Kvashnin, Armed Forces chief of staff, is to transport mobile reserves and rapid deployment units, in particular paratroopers and marines, to distant locations.
The exercise will proceed in stages and cover an area from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific coast.