MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A Russian aviation base near St. Petersburg has been brought to high alert for tactical flight training, the Russian Defense Ministry’s Western Military District said Tuesday.
"The Western Military District’s army aviation base stationed in the Pushkin district of St. Petersburg was brought to high alert today as part of the starting tactical flight training," the district’s press service said.
Nearly all of the base’s technical engineer personnel and flight crews are scheduled to perform 30 helicopter flights a day, it added. The main purpose of the drills is improving the crews’ flight skills and combat helicopter use.
Mi-8, Mi-24 and Mi-35 helicopter crews will perform solo missions and fly within formations over the next four days in drills that include combat launches of unguided air-to-surface rockets, firing 23mm guns and 12.7mm machine guns at targets on a specialized range.
