A five-day tactical exercise conducted for Tajik and Russian servicemen is concluding in the southern Khatlon province today.
The exercise that is being conducted at Momirak and Sambuli training grounds reportedly involves a total of more than 3,500 servicemen, including about 2,500 servicemen of the Russian military base deployed Tajikistan as well as ground attack aircraft, combat helicopters, military transport helicopters, tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The purpose of the exercise is to rehearse coordination and interaction in conducting joint combat missions to block and destroy a simulated enemy in the mountain areas with the support of army aviation.
The Commander of the Russian Central Military District, Colonel-General Alexander Lapin is in overall command of this war game.
Recall, the Chief of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Joint Staff, Colonel-General Anatoly Sidorov, told reporters in Moscow on February 25 that four joint exercises for military personnel of the CSTO member nations are expected to be conducted in Tajikistan this year.
This is due to threats along the border with Afghanistan, the Russian high-ranking military official said following a video conference, in which representatives of defense departments and the media of the CSTO member states participated.
The SCTO military personnel will rehearse coordination and interaction in combat missions to prevent attempts by militants of international terrorist organizations to infiltrate in territories of the CSTO member nations, the general said.
Sidorov noted that the number of Taliban militants deployed in Afghan areas bordering Tajikistan and Turkmenistan is about 15,000 people, while a total number of Taliban militants is up to 70,000 people.
Four military exercises, namely an operational-strategic exercise dubbed “Combat Brotherhood-2021”, a special exercise for military reconnaissance units dubbed “Search-2021”, an exercise for logistics forces dubbed “Echelon-2021”, and an exercise for the CSTO rapid response forces dubbed “Interaction-2021”,
Russia first established the 201st military base in Tajikistan in 2004 with a contingent of several thousand personnel from a motorized infantry division stationed in Tajikistan under a previous agreement, which was signed in 1993, and hosts Russia’s largest military contingent deployed abroad.
A total of some 7,000 Russian troops are now stationed at two military facilities collectively known as the 201st military base – in Dushanbe and Bokhtar (formerly Qurghon Teppa, some 100 kilometers from Dushanbe.
