Los Angeles Times (TNS) --- In a sign of
ongoing tensions over Ukraine, Russia is conducting a surprise test of its
Central Military District’s air defenses, a show of force coinciding with
NATO-led military exercises in the Arctic being mounted in response to earlier
Russian maneuvers.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin ordered four days of air-combat- readiness testing on Monday,
the third major military exercise staged by the Kremlin in the past three
months. The surprise test of the Russian Central Military District’s ability to
defend against an air invasion coincides with NATO-led military exercises over the
Arctic region that are part of the Western alliance’s response to Russia’s
stepped-up maneuvers over the Baltic and Northern European regions.
The Russian drills
will involve 12,000 troops, 250 aircraft and nearly 700 artillery pieces and
other heavy weaponry, and include cruise-missile strikes at an imaginary enemy
target at a Siberian firing range, the Tass news agency reported.
About 100 fighter
jets and 4,000 military personnel from the United
States and eight European countries began exercises over
the Arctic on Monday, Norwegian Brig. Gen. Jan Ove Rygg announced in a
statement from Oslo .
The Western
maneuvers that will run through June 5 also include live-fire exercises. They
will involve six member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — the U.S. , Germany ,
Britain , France , Norway
and the Netherlands — as
well as non-NATO states Sweden ,
Finland and Switzerland .
The two-week Arctic
Challenge Exercise follows NATO submarine-detection drills off the Norwegian
coast earlier this month.
No comments:
Post a Comment