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Pantsyr-S air defense systems are in Russia-Mongolia Selenga drills for the first time

The drills involve over 1,200 troops and about 300 items of combat hardware

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. The teams of Pantsyr-S surface-to-air missile/gun systems will accomplish air defense tasks for the first time during the active phase of the Selenga 2022 joint Russia-Mongolia drills that kicked off on August 4, the press office of Russia’s Eastern Military District reported on Friday.

"This is the first employment of advanced weapons of the Russian air defense forces in the entire history of the Selenga Russia-Mongolia drills. The teams of surface-to-air missile/gun systems will be accomplishing combat training tasks within a joint tactical battlegroup of the armies of the two countries and will be employed to destroy aerial and ground targets using their basic missile/gun armaments," the statement reads.

In the run-up to the joint military maneuvers, the teams of Pantsyr-S systems deployed to Mongolia as part of the Russian military contingent in less than 48 hours and conducted marches to a distance of about 1,500 km from the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator to the Hovd practice range, the press office said.

In addition to the teams of Pantsyr-S anti-aircraft missile/gun systems, the marches were conducted by motorized infantry units of both armies on BTR-82AM and BTR-80 armored personnel carriers, special operations forces on Taifun and Rys armored vehicles, and also by advanced command and control, logistics and military police vehicles of Russia’s Eastern Military District, the statement says.

The vehicles moved in two columns across public roads and field tracks in some sections of terrain. In the course of their redeployment, the troops exercised to repel an attack by a notional enemy’s saboteur groups under the cover of the crews of the Russian army’s Mi-8AMTSh and Mi-24 helicopters also participating in the drills, it said.

The troops participating in the Selenga 2022 joint Russia-Mongolia drills at the Hovd training ground in western Mongolia will practice preparing for and conducting joint operations to eliminate outlawed armed gangs in mountain and desert terrain and in urban conditions. The drills involve over 1,200 troops and about 300 items of combat hardware.