MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. The armored division of the Central Military District employed a new method of shielding the armor while on the move against drone strikes during the drills that ended in the Chelyabinsk Region in the Urals, the District’s press office reported on Friday.

Under the drills’ scenario, a notional enemy planned to employ strike drones to attack a column of the tank regiment making a march to the designated area.

"In order to shield the armor while on the move, the regiment’s command set up mobile anti-drone groups from tank and motorized infantry companies operating BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles and MTLB armored prime movers with the crews of Igla man-portable air defense systems," the press office said in a statement.

The anti-drone mobile groups acted both as the forward force and within armored columns, the press office informed.

Forward observers detected drones approaching the armored column and transmitted data to the command post. The mobile anti-drone groups struck the attacking drones with 2A42 automatic guns of BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles and NSVT tank-mounted large-caliber machine-guns, the statement says.

The drills involved 500 personnel, and also over 60 items of military hardware.