MOSCOW, 20 September (BelTA) – The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) military exercise Combat Brotherhood 2018 will take place on 1 October – 2 November, BelTA learned from Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff Anatoly Sidorov in Moscow on 20 September.
In line with the scenario of the exercise a set of measures to prevent and resolve a military conflict and take care of post-conflict peacebuilding will be practiced in four countries – Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
The military exercise Combat Brotherhood 2018 will be divided into several components to train recon units of the armies of the CSTO member states, the CSTO collective rapid response forces, the CSTO peacemaking forces, and the collective rapid deployment forces of the CSTO's Central Asia region.
Apart from that, the exercise Air Bridge (Vozdushny Most) involving the CSTO collective air force will be held as part of the Combat Brotherhood exercise for the first time. According to Anatoly Sidorov, the exercise will practice redeploying troops and hardware to a crisis area.
Next year the Combat Brotherhood exercise will be expanded with another component – the Echelon 2018 exercise (Eshelon 2018) involving military logistics units.
Anatoly Sidorov noted that the strategic military exercise Combat Brotherhood 2018 is the main event in the combat training of the CSTO collective forces. It will take place in line with this year's joint combat training plan of the CSTO collective security forces.
The exercise Combat Brotherhood 2018 will use a total of 10,000 personnel and 1,500 weapon systems and military hardware units. The number does not include support structures. Contingents from all the CSTO member states will take part in the exercise.
The CSTO Joint Staff chief underlined that the exercise will be an open one. Observers representing the United Nations Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and foreign military observers are expected to watch the exercise.
Combat Brotherhood is the supreme form of military training in the Collective Security Treaty Organization. All kinds of collective security forces will be used during the exercise, concluded Anatoly Sidorov.
