Major air defense exercises begin in Russia’s Western Military District

Military exercises of the Air Defense Troops in Russia’s Western Military District have gathered all district ground forces, including air defense formations of the Northern Fleet, at firing range Kapustin Yar outside the southern Russian city of Astrakhan, chief press officer of the Western Military District Colonel Oleg Kochetkov told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

“This is the most large-scale military exercise of the Air Defense Troops in the Western Military District,” he noted.
Around 3,500 specialists of the district’s army air defense systems and more than 1,000 pieces of military and special hardware were participating in the drills, Kochetkov said. Around 30 military trains were used to transfer military hardware from different Russian regions.