MOSCOW, October 6. /TASS/. Military representatives of Russia and Egypt have agreed on the details of the upcoming joint drills "Defenders of Friendship - 2016", the Russian Defense Ministry’s department of information and mass communications said on Thursday.
"At bilateral meetings, representatives of the Airborne Troops of the Russian Armed Forces and of the Airborne Troops of Egypt held talks and agreed on the procedure of joint military exercise. When deciding on the precise number of participants, they paid special attention to participation of Airborne Troops servicemen who perform parachute jumps using different types of parachutes, including special ones. The importance of exchanging experience in parachuting military equipment to the location of task performance was also discussed," the defense ministry noted.
The ministry said that it is planned to use several aerodromes and 15 helicopters in the joint anti-terrorist drills "Defenders of Friendship - 2016", along with 10 units of military equipment and over 500 servicemen from the two countries. Operational groups from the joint command center will supervise the drills.
Joint military maneuvers will be held in mid-October in Egypt. This is the first international exercise that involves transportation of units of the Russian Airborne Troops with equipment to Egypt by air. The participation of the Russian Airborne Troops in the drills was ensured in accordance with the agreement reached with Egypt and Russian Defense Ministry’s international activities plan.