MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. Artillery units of Russia’s 201st military base eliminated camouflaged enemy targets during drills in Tajikistan’s mountains after detecting them with the help of Sobolyatnik portable reconnaissance radar stations, the press office of the Central Military District reported on Thursday.
"At the Sambuli mountainous training range, the troops reconnoitered the terrain, employing portable radar stations to detect large and small targets at a distance of up to 20 kilometers. After determining the firing positions of a notional enemy’s mortar squads by a shot, the scouts transmitted the coordinates of the targets to the artillery’s command post," the press office said in a statement.
The troops employed Gvozdika and Akatsiya self-propelled howitzers to eliminate the targets in the terrain folds. The artillery units delivered sole and multiple strikes against the enemy targets. Overall, the artillery troops eliminated more than 100 targets located in the mountains during the live-fire exercise, the statement says.
"Radar operators also practiced missions to simultaneously track more than ten targets of the notional enemy, including low-flying unmanned aerial vehicles. The operators conducted their work from camouflaged positions," according to the statement.
The one-day drills involved 500 personnel of artillery and reconnaissance units and more than 100 items of armament and military hardware.
Russia’s Central Military District is based in the territory of the Volga, Urals and Siberian integrated federal districts and 29 Russian regions. Structurally, the Central Military District also includes some overseas facilities: the 201st military base in Tajikistan, the Kant integrated military base in Kyrgyzstan and units stationed on the territory of Kazakhstan.
The 201st military base stationed in Tajikistan is Russia’s largest military facility outside its borders. The military base is stationed 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 the agreement signed in October 2012, Russia’s military base in Tajikistan will remain until 2042.