MOSCOW, August 06. /ITAR-TASS/. Air Defense Troops in the Central Military District will hold large-scale fire drills by air defense missile systems S-300, Buk, Tor, Osa at firing range Kapustin Yar in Russia’s southern Astrakhan region from August 18 to 23, chief press officer of the Central Military District Colonel Yaroslav Roshchupkin told ITAR-TASS on Wednesday.

“Military exercises will end with S-300 preparatory fire drills on complex targets released from target system Saman which fly on trajectories typical for advanced tactical airplanes and cruise missiles,” he noted.

Air defense formations came from Ural’s Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk regions, Republic of Bashkortostan and West Siberia’s Altai territory on Tuesday, Roshchupkin added. “More than five thousand servicemen and around two thousand units of military hardware will be involved in military exercises,” the spokesman of the Central Military District said.