West 2013

Content

1 Composition of forces and organizational features
- 1.1 Military units involved
2 Literature
3 notes
4 References

Zapad-2013 is a joint Russian - Belarusian strategic military exercise held from September 20 to September 26, 2013 at two training grounds in Russia and at three (according to some reports, seven ^[1] ) in Belarus ^[2] . Over 10 thousand troops were involved.

Composition of forces and organizational features

The exercises took place in two stages at the Russian training grounds Khmelevka and Pravdinsky ( Kaliningrad Region ), as well as at the training grounds Brest, Gozhsky and Obuz-Lesnovsky in Belarus ^[3] . About 9,400 Russian and more than 200 Belarusian military personnel, 180 units of military equipment, including 10 tanks , about 40 combat aircraft and up to 10 naval vessels of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, were involved in training activities in the Russian Federation. In addition to them, 2520 Russian soldiers and officers acted on the territory of Belarus.

According to the representatives of the Ministry of Defense, the legend of the exercises was as follows:

<...> According to the scenario of the exercise, extremist groups and gangs penetrated the territory of the Republic of Belarus with the goal of carrying out terrorist acts and destabilizing the situation in the country. They receive external support in the form of logistical assistance, arms supplies and military equipment.
To stabilize the situation on the territory of the Union State, units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were quickly deployed to the Republic of Belarus, which, in close cooperation with units of the armed forces of the Republic of Belarus, were to block and destroy conventional illegal armed formations. <...>
- ^[3]

During the development of combat training tasks, increased attention was paid to coordinating actions between the military ministries of both countries and the executive authorities to meet the needs of the Armed Forces ^[1] . The final stage of the exercises, which took place at the Khmelevka and Gozhsky training grounds, was observed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko .

Military units involved

9th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Western Military District of the Russian Federation,
5th separate special-purpose brigade of the Republic of Belarus,
38th separate mobile brigade of the Republic of Belarus,
11th separate mechanized brigade of the Republic of Belarus,
units of the 20th Army of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,
336th reaction brigade,
465th jet brigade,
120th anti-aircraft missile brigade ^[4] and others.

According to the results of the exercises, 75 people were awarded, including:

25 soldiers of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Belarus , landing from the landing ship "Mordovia" on an unequipped coast ^[5] ,
25 military personnel of the coastal forces of the Baltic Fleet of Russia and military personnel of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Literature

Lebedev A. West-2013: battle check // Brother: Monthly magazine of special forces. - M .: Vityaz-Bratishka LLC, 2013. - No. 11 . - S. 3-7 .
Pichugin D. “West-2013” (Russian) // Equipment and weapons yesterday, today, tomorrow. - 2013. - November ( No. 11 ). - S. 14-17 .

Notes

Links

[putin-1] ¹ ² Opening address at the meeting on the preliminary results of the Russian-Belarusian joint exercises “West 2013”

[2] Strategic military exercises "West 2013"

[mil_rf-3] ¹ ² Joint Russian-Belarusian strategic exercise “West-2013”

[4] The message “According to the plan of the West 2013 exercise, extremist groups and gangs entered the territory of the Republic of Belarus” on the website www.open.by Archive copy of October 11, 2016 on the Wayback Machine

[5] RIA Novosti report “Gerasimov awarded the military who participated in the exercises“ West - 2013 ””