MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. About 1,500 troops and more than 80 warplanes and helicopters are taking part in military drills in south Russia, the Southern Military District’s press office reported on Thursday.
The pilots of Sukhoi Su-25 (NATO reporting name: Frogfoot) and Su-25SM ground attack aircraft will be assigned the task "to support ground forces, performing bombing and launching rockets against various targets on the Chauda shooting range," the press office said.
In turn, the pilots of Sukhoi Su-27 (Flanker) and Su-30SM (Flanker-C) fighter jets will practise missions "to search for, follow and destroy air targets with air-to-air missiles in so-called pursuit courses," the press office said.
The exercises involve the aviation units of the 4th Air Force and Air Defense Army. The pilots are practising the accomplishment of their assigned missions as part of their organic units such as pairs, a wing, a squadron and also a regiment.
The drills will also involve Su-34 (Fullback) and Su-24M (Fencer) frontline bombers, and also Mil Mi-28N (Havoc) and Mi-35M (Hind E) strike helicopters of army aviation.
"At present, the crews of the Su-34 and Su-24M frontline bombers have performed bombing on the Kopanskoi aviation range in the Krasnodar Territory against full-size targets imitating engineering fortifications, manpower and materiel of a simulated enemy," the Southern Military District’s press office said.
The crews of Mi-28N and Mi-35M strike helicopters have practised the elements of simple and complex piloting.
At the stage of their combat training drills, the crews of helicopters conducted reconnaissance and the destruction of a simulated enemy’s targets on the Tarskoye range in North Ossetia.