Russia deploys 8,500 troops for major artillery drills

Russian military forces have launched major artillery drills in its Southern Military District involving nearly 8,500 troops as well as a huge armor force and coincides with maneuvers by the country’s Airborne Troops.
Artillery units are to be deployed in 10 ranges as part of the drills, Russia’s defense ministry said in a Thursday statement cited in an RT report.
The forces involved in the war games will demonstrate their tactical, technical and special skills and will carry out more than 50 field maneuvers, the report says.
“The event involves some 8,500 artillery troops and a large number of rocket artillery systems, military and special hardware, including Grad-M, Uragan and Smersh multiple rocket launchers, Msta-S 152-mm caliber self-propelled howitzers, Nona artillery systems and Rapira 100-mm caliber anti-tank guns,” the statement said.
About half of the shooting practice exercises will be carried out at nighttime, according to the report.
The drills are focused on inter-service cooperation between artillery units and motorized, armor, airborne and amphibious troops, the ministry said.
The development comes as nearly 1,500 Russian airborne troops were transported on Thursday to a range in the Rostov Region for a massive simultaneous deployment.
Those drills, involving a total of 4,000 troops, 36 transport aircraft and 500 military vehicles, will continue through Friday.