Non-Subscriber Extract
Belarus and Russia hold their largest live exercise
By Grzegorz Holdanowicz
14 October 2009
Russia and Belarus conducted their largest joint exercise, 'Zapad 2009', in September.
The three-week exercise was held under the umbrella of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and involved 6,500 soldiers, sailors and air force personnel from Belarus and 6,000 Russians, along with a 30-strong delegation from Kazakhstan.
The exercise also involved the use of a total of 228 main battle tanks, 470 other armoured vehicles, 234 artillery pieces and rocket launchers, as well as 63 fixed-wing attack aircraft and 40 helicopters. They included Tupolev Tu-160 'Blackjack', Tu-22M3 'Backfire' and Tu-95MS 'Bear-H' strategic bombers and Sukhoi Su-24M 'Frogfoot' fast jets. The 'Frogfoot' and 'Backfires' used a new SVP-24 automated targeting system.