Moscow. October 14th. INTERFAX - The Russian military put the Pantsir-S air defense systems on duty near Belgrade, which were transferred by planes to Serbia for joint exercises, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
"A joint Russian-Serbian mixed air defense group has been formed as part of a joint exercise at the Batainica airbase. The units of the joint group have taken up combat duty for the air defense of Belgrade, the Batajnica air base and the central industrial district of Serbia," the report says.
The maneuvers involve Russian and Serbian units equipped with the Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile and cannon complex, as well as a Serbian anti-aircraft missile unit equipped with Neva-M1T complexes, the military said.
"During combat duty, the joint air defense group will work out practical actions of calculations to repel massive enemy air strikes in a difficult jamming situation," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
In Serbia, the exercises "Slavic Shield - 2021" began on Thursday, to which Russia transferred a battery of short-range air defense systems "Pantsir-S" by military transport aircraft.
On April 9, the commander of the air and missile defense forces, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation, Yuri Grekhov, said about these maneuvers: "The specifics of the exercise are the transfer of air defense units to the territory of another state and the deployment of a joint grouping of troops and air defense forces in a new positional area to cover the most important objects from enemy air strikes."
As reported, Serbia is also currently hosting a joint tactical flight exercise "BARS-2021" with Russia. The maneuvers involve joint crews of Russia and Serbia on MiG-29 aircraft, Mi-8 and Mi-35 helicopters.
Russia has already transferred air defense systems to Serbia for exercises. On October 24, 2019, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the S-400 Triumph long-range air defense systems division and the Pantsir-S battery of short-range air defense systems were sent by military transport aviation to Serbia for maneuvers. The S-400 division and the Pantsir-S battery then took part in exercises abroad for the first time.
On November 5, 2019, the military announced the return of the S-400 and Pantsir-S complexes from Serbia to Russia.
