Russian Eastern Military District Troops Pass Unannounced Inspection

MOSCOW, August 25 (RIA Novosti) - The unannounced inspection of the combat readiness of Russia’s Eastern Military District was successful, a Russian military spokesman said Monday citing Col. Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the commander of the troops.

“At a meeting of the Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet command in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Col. Gen. Sergei Surovikin stressed that a number of difficult tasks, such as air, sea and railroad transportation of the district’s ground forces and fighter, bomber and army aircraft redeployment to unfamiliar or little-known airfields from the mainland to the Kamchatka peninsula and Sakhalin island on a tight schedule were performed for the first time. The district commander noted that, on the whole, the command of all ranks and personnel coped with the stated tasks,” Col. Aleksander Gordeyev, the head of the Eastern Military District’s press service said.

Additionally, Surovikin set the goal of boosting ammunition expenditures for the units engaged in the inspection up to sevenfold, and achieving a minimum grade of four out a possible five in firing exercises.

The unannounced inspection of Eastern Military District combat readiness started on August 6 on the orders of Col. Gen. Surovikin. The district’s coastal troops carried out vehicle marches and practiced air and harbor defense during a coastal defense simulation. The Sukhoi Su-24 “Fencer,” Su-27 “Flanker,” Su-30 SM “Flanker-C,” Su-35 “Flanker-E,” and the Antonov An-124 “Ruslan” (“Condor”), An-12 “Cub” aircraft as well as motorized infantry and artillery units stationed in Russia’s Primorsky Territory were enlisted in the inspection