Russian army to hold over 500 drills in summer - Defense Ministry
MOSCOW. May 31 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry intends to considerably increase training intensity from June 1, Russian First Deputy Defense Minister Army General Arkady Bakhin told reporters after a Defense Ministry board meeting.
"We will hold in summer over 500 drills of various capacities, 40% of which will be joint ones," Bakhin said.
Bakhin said that "firstly, issues of military training" were considered at the board meeting held on May 30.
"What is the reason for this? The winter training was more intensive. Unexpected inspections on the force combat readiness headed by the commander-in-chief were held. They were very intensive. A number of gaps were found during the inspections and relevant evaluations were given. We will take them into account during the summer training," Bakhin said.
"We will reconsider a number of approaches to combat training during the summer training. Main efforts will be aimed at joint training. What is this? This is when ground troops, air and naval forces perform tasks jointly," Bakhin said.
When asked from which level joint training would be performed, Bakhin said: "We consider battalion as the main tactical level for joint training."
Bakhin said that "West 2013 joint training with Belarus, which will be held in September, will be the top of the summer training of the Russian forces."
The official said that "approaches to training junior specialists have been changed."
"We will increase the training time in subdivisions for draft soldiers by one month to a total of four months," he said.