Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered “snap drills” to test combat readiness on Tuesday [Xinhua]
Russia has begun to implement measures to enhance combat readiness a day after Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu put the Air Force on high alert following an order from President Vladimir Putin to ensure their combat competence.
Shoigu ordered all air force bases and units to conduct drills and pay attention “to the combat alert missions, deployment of the air defense systems for a time of war and the readiness of the air groupings to repel aggression”.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that these drills fall within standard armed forces practice.
“The president and the defense minister repeatedly said that this practice would continue as it demonstrated quite positive results in maintaining a sufficient combat readiness level of our armed forces,” Peskov said in a press briefing.
Russia’s advanced S-400 long-range surface-to-air missiles have already been deployed and successfully used to destroy mock targets in a drill on Tuesday.
NATO is also currently half-way through its seven-nation military exercises in the Black Sea while the US conducts tank and troop drills in Poland.
Russia conducted ‘snap drills’ in the west and south of the country to test “combat readiness” last August.
The exercises, which lasted for six days, involved heavy weaponry, mechanized divisions, air defenses, paratroopers, aerospace officers, and several naval units from the Northern Fleet, to name a few.
S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, in addition to some 70 MiG-31 fighter jets, also participated.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
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