ROSTOV-ON-DON, June 3. /TASS/. Pilots and anti-aircraft gunners from the 4th Air Force and Air Defense Army will hold over 70 large-scale drills in south Russia during the summer training period, Russia’s Southern Military District Spokesman Vadim Astafyev said on Monday.

"The combat training program for aviation units envisages over 40 tactical flight training drills while the combat teams of air defense missile troops and radar forces will conduct around 30 tactical exercises," the spokesman said.

During tactical flight training drills and command and staff exercises, the crews of tactical and army aviation will spend more than 15,000 hours in the sky flying Su-24, Su-25SM, Su-30SM and Su-34 aircraft and Mi-8AMTSh, Mi-28N and Mi-35M helicopters, to practice conducting air reconnaissance, providing for troops’ cover from the air and striking a notional enemy’s ground and air targets, the officer said.

Anti-aircraft missile and radar troops’ batteries and battalions will conduct live-fire exercises at practice ranges in the Astrakhan Region in south Russia, and also at the Telemba range in Buryatia in East Siberia. The crews of S-400 ‘Triumf’, S-300 air defense missile systems, Pantsyr-S air defense missile/gun complexes, Tor and Buk surface-to-air missile systems will be involved in the drills.

The air defense troops of Russia’s Southern Military District will also take part in the ‘Friendship Arrow’ Russian-Egyptian drills that will be held in Egypt in the autumn of 2019, the District’s spokesman said.