Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan hold joint military drill

During the exercises, the special operations units of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan accomplished the missions of night reconnaissance and combat operations. As was envisioned, conducting aerial reconnaissance at a height of 2,500 meters, a UAV spotted an illegally armed militia group that was then destroyed by a pair of Sukhoi Su-30 fighter aircraft. A military group was air dropped from a height of 2,000 meters at the area of the probable enemy movement. The front-line aircraft was directed to the targets. The missile and bombardment artillery adjusted the fire by unmanned aerial vehicles and ground electrooptic reconnaissance assets. At the same time assault detachments were deployed to block and destroy the militants in a settlement.

"The tasks assigned to the special operations units of the armed forces of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have been successfully accomplished, the goals of the first stage of the joint exercises have been achieved. We plan to carry out the second stage of the exercises at Forish Training Center of the Republic of Uzbekistan. I would like to say that we resolved a lot of issues during the visit. Within the tasks set by our President, our Supreme Commander-in-Chief, we have reached full understanding and compatibility in addressing the issues of operational combat practice and staff training," said Minister of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan Saken Zhassuzakov.

In turn, the head of the defense ministry of Uzbekistan, Major General Abdusalom Azizov, thanked his counterpart for according a warm welcome and underlined that regular meetings will boost the relations between the two armies.

"Joint exercises demonstrated our special units' absolute cohesion and mutual understanding in using combat air forces, using state-of-the-art technology in night operations. I think we can regard the exercises and the visit as a whole as successful," Azizov said.