zaterdag 15 september 2018

Russia Starts Biggest Military Drill in Decades

300,000 Troops & Thousands of War Machines: Russia Starts Biggest Military Drill in Decades

Strategic maneuvers of this kind haven't been carried out by Russia since 1981 and even back then they didn't involve quite as many troops

Some 300,000 troops and tens of thousands vehicles, aircraft and warships are participating in the largest military exercise Russia has staged in 37 years. Units from China are to take part in the maneuvers as well.
The Vostok 2018 exercise is meant to test the capability of the Russian military to rapidly move and deploy large forces over long distances as well as coordinating between several branches during a large-scale engagement.
The assets have been sent from all over Russia to several training ranges in the Far East of the country by railroad and military transport planes. Several units of the People’s Liberation Army of China will join the Russians for a drill at the Tsugol range.
Chinese armor arriving in Russia to take part in the Vostok-2018 exercise 
For some participants, Vostok 2018 will be their first chance to show off some new weapon systems. For instance, the Airborne Troops will be deploying their freshly-supplied BMD-4M air-dropped infantry fighting vehicles and Patriot pickup trucks armed with Kornet anti-tank missiles. Meanwhile, the military engineers will be doing their best to confuse “the enemy” with inflatable mock-ups of Iskander missile launchers and S-300 anti-aircraft batteries.
An inflatable mock-up of an S-400 launcher 

One of the key elements of the entire exercise, however, will be hard to notice from afar. Russian military communication specialists have deployed a secure network over an area of around 9.8 million square kilometers to ensure the exchange of intelligence and stable communications between the many military units involved in the drill. A broadband link to the General Staff HQ in Moscow 900km away will keep the military chain-of-command in order.
The exercise will be witnessed by monitors from 57 nations as well as NATO and the European Union, according to Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin. He added that Russia informed NATO of the planned exercise months ahead of time during a meeting in May.

"Dylan White said was briefed on ... and would monitor it." I added: "Vostok demonstrates Russia's focus on exercising large-scale conflict. It fits into a pattern... a more assertive Russia significantly increasing its defence budget & its military presence."
The US-led military bloc routinely voices concern over Russian exercises. The Vostok-2018, however, was not targeted by a wave of suspicion similar to its counterpart last year, the Zapad-2017, which some allies framed as bordering on an act of aggression and a possible ruse to launch an invasion of the Baltics. The fears never materialized, just as Moscow said.

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Peter Flik en Chuck Berry-Promised Land

mijn unieke collega Peter Flik, die de vrijzinnig protestantse radio omroep de VPRO maakte is niet meer. ik koester duizenden herinneringen ...