TARBELA /Pakistan/, November 12. /TASS/. Russian and Pakistani paratroopers practiced an airborne assault operation without parachutes in the Friendship 2020 joint military drills, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

"The servicemen of Russia and Pakistan practiced the tactic of parachute-free landing from domestically-made helicopters as part of the joint Russian-Pakistani military exercise Friendship 2020," the ministry said in a statement.

The exercise was held at the Tarbela special operations training ground in Pakistan. The helicopters hovered at an altitude of 20 meters in the air while the commandos descended using a special rope. Following this, the paratroopers practiced defending the area of landing and repelling a terrorists’ attack. Mi-17 helicopters (the export version of Russia’s Mi-8s) operational with the Pakistani army aviation were involved in the exercise, the statement says.

Overall, the exercise involved 150 personnel from the special operations company of the 49th combined arms army of Russia’s Southern Military District and Pakistani special operations forces.

‘Friendship’ joint Russian-Pakistani military drills have been held annually since 2016 alternately in each of the countries. This year, the maneuvers involve over 70 servicemen of the special operations company of the Russian 49th combined arms army stationed in the Stavropol Region in southern Russia.

The drills are running in three stages. The first stage is taking place at the Pakistani Army’s Tarbela special operations training ground on November 9-14 and involves solo training and exercises as part of groups. The next two stages will take place at the Pakistani National Counter-Terrorism Center in Pabbi on November 16-19.