MINSK, October 24. /TASS/. The Belarusian Air Force has reduced the time required to hit ground targets after an experiment conducted as part of an exercise, said the country’s Deputy Commander of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces Anatoly Bulavko.

"While before the time from detection to defeat [of a ground target] fluctuated around an hour, now we can responsibly say, according to the results of an experiment, it has been tested already, that it’s a matter of minutes," he said in an interview with the Belarus Today news organization, according to a video of the interview posted on YouTube.

Bulavko said it’s a good result.

"And we are already building on this result to further reduce this time, to increase the stability of managing these forces and means," he said.

The experiment on combat management of aircraft during aerial support of ground forces was conducted as part of comprehensive exercises that were held in Belarus from September 22 to 26. During the experiment, Yak-130 airplanes and Mi-24 helicopters carried out air strikes on targets at a training range using a new, faster algorithm for calling in air support.