MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. The large-scale drills that kicked off in the Russian Pacific Fleet will practice combat sustainability of strategic missile-carrying submarines, Chief of the Russian General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov said at a Defense Ministry meeting on the Pacific Fleet’s surprise inspection on Friday.

"At the second stage, special attention shall be paid to timely deploying naval forces to the areas of taskforces and building up air defense combat alert forces," the chief of the General Staff said.

"Special attention shall be paid to ensuring combat sustainability of strategic missile-carrying submarines and their preparedness for employing weapons," Gerasimov said.

"During the second stage [of the drills], after the completion of the procedure for putting forces on combat alert, constant alert forces shall deploy from their bases to combat training areas. In order to build up the air defense system, surface-to-air missile battalions from surface-to-air missile regiments other than on-duty forces shall conduct a march to potential missile attack areas and assume combat duty," the chief of the General Staff said.

"In order to build up the low-altitude radar field, mobile radar stations shall deploy to new site areas, assume combat duty and organize the issuance of radar data to on-duty air defense forces and capabilities," he said.

"At the third stage, combat training objectives shall be practiced in compliance with the decisions made on the deployment of the Fleet’s forces (troops) and planned measures," Gerasimov said.