Tens of thousands of Russian military personnel will take part in Center 2015 strategic exercises that will be held simultaneously in several areas both in Russia and abroad, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
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The strategic military exercises for military personnel in the Central Federal District, called Center 2015, will be held in summer through autumn 2015. They are planned as the largest exercises of the year.
“The exercises will be held in the summer training period simultaneously in different areas within Russian Federation and abroad,” the Defense Ministry’s statement said. “They will be extended in time and will unite tens of thousands soldiers and military personnel of the Central Military district, divisions and units of armed forces and other national security and defense agencies under a single command.”
According to Colonel General Vladimir Zarudnitsky, the military personnel will work out a significant part of drills in unfamiliar areas. The ministry will test the system of territorial defense and mobilization deployment. The personnel will be able to test new equipment and to give feedback to the defense industry.
The commanders of battalion tactical groups will have peculiar tasks in which they will have to act quickly and unconventionally under conditions of shortened time limits, using the full range of forces and equipment.
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“Center 2015 will be the climax of the Central Military District troops training that started this year,” Zarudnitsky said. The new training year in the Russian army starts December 1.
The Defense Ministry plans other events in 2015, such as the Army Games international competition, Comradeship-in-Arms of the Air Force, Interaction of the Collective Rapid Reaction Force of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and Union Shield joint drills with Belarus.
“Conducting the scheduled events will contribute to increasing the combat readiness and the high quality performance of the tasks set before them,” Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said in a statement.
In 2014 Russian military held numerous maneuvers in several districts of Russia including two major exercise events - Vostok-2014 and Russia-China Naval Interaction-2014. Vostok 2014 has been the most prominent military drill held in 11 areas in far eastern part of Russia with about 150,000 people participating in it.
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