MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/. Officers of the Russian military base in Tajikistan held drills for artillery fire control under a notional enemy’s electronic counter-measures at the Sambuli training range in Tajikistan, the press office of Russia’s Central Military District reported on Wednesday.
The drills that ran on December 3-4 involved "more than 500 personnel and about 100 items of combat and special hardware: Grad and Uragan multiple launch rocket systems, self-propelled Akatsiya and Gvozdika howitzers and 120mm Sani mortars," the press office said in a statement.
Adversary electronic warfare systems suppress communications channels upon the transmission of coordinates to fire control posts and impede the operation of artillery reconnaissance means, the press office specified for TASS.
During the drills, the personnel destroyed over 300 well-camouflaged site and point targets at distances of 3 to 15 km, the statement says.
"Prompt interaction and the operation of command posts for artillery fire control were organized within the integrated reconnaissance and fire system," the press office added.
The 201st military base stationed in Tajikistan is Russia’s largest military facility outside its borders. The military base is located in the cities of Dushanbe and Bokhtar. The military base’s armament includes T-72 tanks, BTR-82A armored personnel carriers, Grad multiple launch rocket systems, Gvozdika and Akatsiya artillery systems.
Under an agreement signed in October 2012, Russia’s military base in Tajikistan will remain until 2042.