VLADIVOSTOK. June 16 (Interfax-AVN) - A paratrooper company of the Northern Fleet, which was delivered from Olenegorsk to the Maritime territory by an IL-62 Classic plane, is getting ready for the active stage of the Mobilnost 2004 strategic exercise, Major General Alexander Zastavsky, chief-of-staff of the Navy's coastal forces, told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"A reinforced paratrooper company numbering up to 150 personnel arrived at the Maritime territory early on Wednesday, having made a 10-hour flight. The Northern Fleet personnel will accomplish organic missions on a new theater of operations here," Zastavsky said.
"We have not practiced long-distance transportation of mobile forces from one fleet to another for a long time. The plan is to check ability of marines to accomplish inherent missions in new climatic conditions, on an unfamiliar terrain, and using alien equipment," he noted.
According to Zastavsky, the company will be housed on the premises of a marine division of the Pacific Fleet.
"Today they will have a rest and get used to new climatic conditions, and tomorrow morning they will travel to the nearest training ground to shoot in weapons, get acquainted with hardware and hold special tactical exercises. A marine party will land on a Clerk Peninsula coast on June 22," he said.