MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/. The crews of the Pacific Fleet’s ships fired surface-to-air missile systems and artillery guns in air defense drills on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.

The drills involved the small anti-submarine warfare ships Kholmsk, Ust-Ilimsk, and MPK-107 and the minesweepers Yakov Balyayev, MT-264 and MT-265, the press office specified.

"The water area protection task force from the troops and forces in Russia’s northeast held an air defense exercise in an inner roadstead of the Avacha Bay. The warships’ crews practiced operations by the teams of Osa surface-to-air missile systems, AK-630 artillery guns and visual surveillance posts to thwart a notional enemy’s air strikes. The naval task force practiced an algorithm of ships’ joint operations to deliver concentrated fire from air defense systems against aerial targets attacking from various flight paths, altitudes and distances," the press office said in a statement.

The air defense teams employed missile and artillery systems to shield the naval ships from adversary air strikes. The teams paid special attention to spotting, tracking and eliminating high-speed small-size targets that simulated reconnaissance and strike drones, the press office said.