ULAN UDE, August 22. /TASS/: Troops from Russia and Mongolia worked on perfecting a new tactic during their first joint training in a live-fire exercise at the Selenga-2019 joint drills, the press office of Russia’s Eastern Military District reported on Thursday.
"Units of the all-arms army of the Eastern Military District stationed in Buryatia and of the armed forces of Mongolia held the first joint training with a live-fire exercise at the Munkh Khet practice range as part of the Selenga-2019 Russian-Mongolian drills," the press office said in a statement.
"Motor riflemen practiced measures to destroy a notional enemy by firepower, using a new tactic, ‘A Stealth Attack,’ based on the experience of modern armed conflicts," the statement says.
Pursuant to the new tactic, the crews of motorized infantry units made a march aboard their BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, landed near a notional community and organized their stealth movement in an urban area.
"The group was led by the reconnaissance platoons of the drill’s member states that checked the terrain for ambushes, tripwires and mine traps. Tanks and BMP-2 vehicles moved along the proven safe routes in the rear of the motor rifle groups for fire support in case of a notional enemy’s surprise attack," the Eastern Military District specified.
The training exercise also practiced interaction with armored units, artillery and helicopters of the Eastern Military District’s army aviation, the statement says.
The Russian-Mongolian military drills are running at the Munkh Khet training range. The maneuvers will involve up to 1,000 troops from the Eastern Military District’s motor rifle large unit stationed in the town of Kyakhta (Buryatia) and about the same number of personnel from Mongolia.
The Russian troops will employ about 300 weapon systems in the drills: 152mm Akatsiya howitzers, Grad multiple launch rocket systems, Shilka self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, T-72B3 tanks, BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, Mi-24 and Mi-8AMTSh helicopters from the Eastern Military District’s army aviation airfield located in the Trans-Baikal Region.
The Russian-Mongolian drills have been held annually since 2008. Before 2011, the military tactical drills with the live-fire exercise were dubbed Darkhan, which stands for ‘Builder’ in Mongolian. In 2011, the maneuvers were dubbed Selenga, which is the name of the river that originates on the territory of Mongolia, flows through the Republic of Buryatia in East Siberia and gets into Lake Baikal. Since then, the drills have focused on anti-terror activities.
In 2018, the maneuvers took place at the Burduny practice range in Buryatia and involved over 1,000 troops and up to 200 weapon systems from both sides.
