Russia’s 1st tank army to take part in Zapad-2021 strategic drills with Belarus

MOSCOW (TASS): The first tank army will take part in the upcoming Zapad-2021 (West-2021) Russia-Belarus strategic drills, the press office of Russia’s Western Military District announced on Wednesday.

“Over 150 tactical and special tactical exercises of various levels will be held in the summer training period, and the final stage of training will involve the troop’s participation in the Zapad-2021 joint strategic Russian-Belarusian maneuvers,” the press office said in a statement.

In the summer training period, 7,000 personnel of the Western Military District’s tank army are sharpening their skills on the territory of the Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk, Ivanovo and Yaroslavl Regions, the statement says.

“As part of measures at practice ranges, platoon commanders of the Western Military District’s tank army are being trained in the course of field exercises, where the servicemen are practicing tactical, firing, engineering and military medicine training procedures within the required time limits and will also drive motor and armored vehicles, in particular, BMP-2 and BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, BTR-82A and BTR-80 armored personnel carriers, T-72B3, T-80 and T-90 tanks, Iskander-M tactical missile systems, Tor-M2 surface-to-air missile launchers and other materiel,” the Western Military District’s press office specified.