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Belarus’ security chief claims air/air defense exercise gave Poland, Lithuania jitters
March 12, Pozirk. Poland and Lithuania scrambled their reconnaissance planes on March 11 in response to surprise air/air defense drills in Belarus, said Alaksandar Valfovič, state secretary of the Security Council who initiated the training, according to the defense ministry in Minsk.
Air/air defense units were unexpectedly brought to readiness and deployed to positions indicated by the Security Council, the ministry said.
The drill tested the Air/Air Defense Command’s ability to control unit operations in detecting and tracking targets and issuing orders to shoot them down, it quoted Valfovič as saying.
He claimed that the exercise was not intended to pose a threat to neighboring countries, noting that the units kept away from the western border. Missions were carried out deeper inside the country and even farther east, he said.
On March 12, the units are conducting live-fire training.
One of the united involved in the exercise yesterday was the 116th Guards Assault Air Base based in Lida in western Belarus, according to reported from the ministry. Its pilots flew Su-25, Yak-130 and L-39 aircraft at altitudes under 3,000 meters and at a speed of 600 kilometers per hour.
The aircraft were also used as “control targets for imitating an attack by a putative foe,” it noted. The aircraft flew part of their missions in pairs and the rest one by one.
