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4 Sep 2015, 15:59

Over 40 aircraft redeploy to operational airfields for exercise Combat Commonwealth

The exercise under way at the Ashuluk firing range in the Astrakhan Region to be complete on September 11

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/. More than 40 fighters, bombers and attack aircraft as well as planes with the Long-Range Air Command have redeployed to operational airfields in the run-up to Combat Commonwealth 2015, a combined exercise of the Common Air Defense System of the CIS countries, Igor Klimov, spokesman for the Air and Space Force, told TASS on Friday.

The CIS Combined Air Defense System exercise of Armenian, Belarusian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Russian and Tajik troops is under way at the Ashuluk firing range in the Astrakhan Region to be complete on September 11.

"Tupolev Tu-22M3 (NATO reporting name Backfire) bombers, Sukhoi Su-34 (Fullback) multirole fighter-bombers, Su-30SM (Flanker-C) multirole fighters as well as Mikoyan MiG-31BM (Foxhound), MiG-29SMT (Fulcrum), Su-25SM (Frogfoot), Su-24MR (Fencer-E), Su-27 (Flanker) aircraft will be used in the exercise," Klimov added.

According to Klimov, aviators will use the drills to practice suppression of enemy air defense, close air combat, rocket launches against and strafing of ground targets, bombing attacks and repelling of massive air attacks.

Earlier, personnel participating in the exercise and their S-300 Favorit and S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile systems and air defense radars had arrived to the firing range. The active phase of the exercise will take place between September 7 and 10.