Russian forces stationed in Far East achieve impressive results in preparations for large-scale hostilities - Eastern Military District commander
ANIVA (Sakhalin region). May 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Troops of the Eastern Military District had 22,000 tactical fire and special drills in the winter training season, which significantly improved their combat preparedness, Eastern Military District Commander Col. Gen. Sergei Surovikin said.
"Multi-service training and tactical drills with formations and military units were the priorities of combat practice. The troops performed multi-kilometer combined marches by combat vehicles and by rail on unfamiliar terrain," Surovikin said at a meeting of the district's Military Board on Friday.
Those drills reduced the march time 1.5-fold and the period of boarding a train twice, he said.
"A check performed in April demonstrated a generally increased level of combat and mobilization preparedness of troops and an improvement of the quality of their operative and combat training. More than 100,000 servicemen of the district took part in field training and were personally appraised during the check," the commander said.
Tactical drills held through the brigade level "engaged more than 1,500 mobile and fixed targets installed at training ranges, and radio-controlled range equipment was broadly used," he said. The final stage of the check featured 15 major multi-service tactical exercises with live fire drills, in which more than 25,000 servicemen, about 6,500 combat vehicles, 120 aircraft, approximately 30 surface ships and two submarines participated.