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  • We'll make a bang

    Agency WPS
    DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
    April 9, 2004, Friday

    WE'LL MAKE A BANG!

    SOURCE: Moskovsky Komsomolets, April 7, 2004, p. 2

    by Olga Bozhieva

    Russian and Belarusian Antiaircraft Forces were put an alert this
    morning. A command exercise of the CIS United Antiaircraft System is
    under way, run right near the western borders of the Commonwealth.

    No general of the Russian or Belarusian Antiaircraft Forces could be
    found at their desks on day two of the exercise. All of them
    descended into underground command posts to practice "joint command
    of antiaircraft forces and means in a deteriorating
    military-political situation."

    Needless to say, "deterioration" means unpredictable or hostile
    actions on the part of the Alliance. The official legend of the
    exercise is approximately like that: actions of the CIS United
    Antiaircraft System when terrorists hijack foreign planes or cross
    the borders of the Commonwealth.

    Planes imitating the potential enemy will make runs between Russian
    and Belarusian airfields allegedly trespassing and land in nearby
    countries. S-300 crews and fighters of the Antiaircraft Forces will
    "destroy" them on LCDs.

    Actual targets will be handled next week on Ashuluk near Astrakhan.
    The Belarusians set out for Ashuluk on April 12 to "open the season".

    Lieutenant General Oleg Paferov, Belarusian Air Force and
    Antiaircraft Forces Commander: Up to a dozen Belarusian batteries are
    involved in shooting practice every year. Russia provides the
    equipment, the testing site, and targets. Belarus spends much less on
    Russian military objects on its territory than what Russia spends to
    allow us to make use of its testing sites and shooting grounds free
    of charge.

    It means that "gas" and financial problems worry Russian and
    Belarusian politicians only. The military is concerned with common
    military threats.

    The command exercise involves:

    - over 100 units and formations of the Air Force and Antiaircraft
    Forces;

    - over 80 aircraft from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
    Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Russia.

    Russia is represented by the Special Task Command (Moscow, and
    Leningrad, Rostov, and Yekaterinburg armies of the Air Force and
    Antiaircraft Forces.
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