CSTO army exercise Interaction 2013 kicks off in Belarus
The exercise, which is to be held on 20-25 September, will begin with a meeting of the top officers of the collective rapid response forces and a command post rehearsal on 19 September.
The exercise will gather over 600 personnel from the military units of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Nikolai Bordiuzha will take part in the exercise as well as Chief of the CSTO United Staff, Lieutenant-General Alexander Studenikin.
The exercise is supposed to improve the performance of administration bodies and the troops in ensuring the military security of the CSTO member states in the Eastern Europe collective security region. There are plans to explore possible ways for further development of components of the CSTO collective forces and the procedure for their optimal operation.
Unlike other exercises Interaction 2013 will involve the simultaneous application of two CSTO collective security system components, namely the Belarusian-Russian regional military taskforce and the CSTO collective rapid response forces. The exercise will practice the nascent system designed to manage troops in strategic areas, the application of the collective air force in a special operation and a joint operation, BelTA reports.
The concept of the exercise Interaction 2013 was developed with these goals in mind. The CSTO exercise situation will evolve while missions will be fulfilled as part of the Belarusian-Russian strategic exercise Zapad 2013, which will take place on 20-26 September.
The Interaction 2013 exercise will be built upon a scenario, which assumes that extremist bands have infiltrated a CSTO member state for the sake of carrying out terrorist attacks and destabilizing the situation in the country.
The exercise will include three phases. For the first time self-propelled artillery units will be air dropped during the exercise.
