MINSK, 16 March (BelTA) – Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met in Moscow on 5 March and discussed the implementation of events outlined by the Belarus-Russia strategic partnership program for 2021-2025. The sides agreed it is necessary to set up three joint combat training centers, representatives of the Belarusian Defense Ministry told BelTA.
A combat training center for Air Force and Air Defense personnel is supposed to be created in Belarus. The center will train crews of Su-30SM aircraft. It will train Belarusian specialists how to operate the modern air defense missile systems that the Russian army uses. It will also focus on the joint accomplishment of combat training missions. The center will greatly improve the level of training of Belarusian Air Force and Air Defense personnel and personnel of the Russian Aerospace Forces. It will enhance the practical component in the development of the joint regional air defense system of the Union State of Belarus and Russia.
Plans have been made to set up a joint combat training center for ground troops in the Russian Federation. It will focus on training motorized infantry and tank personnel of the Belarusian army and the Russian one on the basis of the guidelines that take into account the combat experience of the Russian Armed Forces. The center will allow practicing interaction between units of the Belarusian army and forces of the regional military group of the Russian Federation Armed Forces on an entirely new level. In the end it will considerably increase the effectiveness of its deployment.
The advisability of setting up a combat training center in Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast on the basis of the Baltic Fleet of the Western Military District was determined. Such a center will allow training Belarusian army units using resources of Russian marine forces, which use BTR82A armored personnel carriers. BelTA reported earlier that the Belarusian army will get BTR82A APCs in 2021.
The center will also allow using modern physical infrastructure for training Belarusian divers.
