Airborne Troops finish large-scale exercise in Crimea, complete all tasks successfully - commander
MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax-AVN) - A large-scale command post exercise (CPX) involving three Airborne Troops formations has ended at the Opuk training site in Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
"The exercise involved over 2,500 personnel, 600 armored and automotive vehicles, the Black Sea Fleet's large landing ship Tsezar Kunikov, over 45 planes and helicopters," the ministry said in a statement obtained by Interfax-AVN on Friday.
Commander of the Airborne Troops, Col. Gen. Andrei Serdyukov who led the maneuvers, said: "The main objectives of the CPX have been achieved".
"The Airborne Troops commander also noted that 'all participants in the exercise demonstrated a good level of cohesion in the framework of inter-service interaction during the use of an Airborne Troops grouping as a rapid response force," the statement said.
During the planned exercise, held on March 20-24, the airborne troops completed a number of combat-training assignments as part of the rapid response grouping jointly with Black Sea Fleet and Russian Aerospace Force units. The tasks included air, tactical and amphibious landing operations, providing anti-landing defense under hostile jamming conditions, stages of live firing with the use of bombing, attack and army aircraft, landing ships, artillery weapons and small arms.