18.08.2020.
Teams of Serbian Armed Forces Ready for Beginning of International Military Games
This year’s International Military Games, which represent one of the largest military sport competitions in the world, are going to be held from 23rd August to 5th September in the territory of five states: Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. One hundred sixty teams from 30 countries applied to participate in this prestigious competition which is organised in 30 events.
Members of the Serbian Armed Forces will participate in three events: “Tank Biathlon” which is being held on the training area “Alabino” near Moscow, “Military Rally” held in the Republic of Tyva in the east of the Russian Federation, and in “Sniper Frontier” held in Belarus.
Twenty four members of the Serbian Armed Forces will participate in the event “Tank Biathlon”, while our thirteen-member team is to participate in “Military Rally”, and a team consisting of nine members of the Serbian Armed Forces will participate in the event “Sniper Frontier”.
A delegation of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces will participate in the Forum “Armija” which is going to be held concurrently with the International Military Games, and it is organised at the initiative of the Russian Minister of Defence General Sergey Shoygu. It is one of the largest exhibitions of weapons, ammunition, military and special materiel and equipment in Russia and one of the largest in the world. This year’s exhibition will host around 1500 Russian and foreign companies, which will present 25,000 articles of weapons and military equipment.
The International Military Games is followed by the National Culture Festival held in the House of Friendship at the training area Alabino and in the Patriot Park, which is an integral part of that spacious military complex in the vicinity of Moscow. Each country that participates in the Festival with different exhibits displayed on its stand in the House of Friendship, presents the particularities of its national culture, and in competitive and review part, artists from those countries endeavour to present the musical and folklore tradition of their country through songs and dance. At the last year’s Festival, the Serbian stand in the House of Friendship was among the most visited ones, while a quartet of the Artistic Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence “Stanislav Binički” successfully represented our country in the artistic segment of the Festival.
The plan for this year is to enrich the artistic part of the programme by presenting folklore richness of Serbia through performance of a national dance group of Cultural Artistic Company “Dimitrije Koturović“. They will present our country together with representatives of the Public Relations Department and members of the Artistic Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence “Stanislav Binički” who will perform military marches, traditional vocal and instrumental compositions from various parts of Serbia and music from world film hits.
At the stand, the members of the national dance group will demonstrate the variety of national attires and uniforms of the Serbian Army from previous periods. Film production of the Military Film Centre “Zastava Film” will be augmented with new films autonomously produced and co-produced with the Radio Television of Serbia, while selection of books published by the Media Centre “Odbrana” is to be enriched by new issues within the edition “Warrior” and new titles translated into the Russian language.
The report sent from Russia and Belarus from this year’s participants of our country points out that our competitors, after their stay in quarantine, are training hard and that they are ready for the best results, though the competition is exceptional.
At “Tank Biathlon” it was decided by lot for our tankmen to be in a group with China, Azerbaijan and Belarus. They will drive their first race on 23rd August in yellow colour tanks, and the second and third individual race will be driven on 26th and 29th August. The best four crews of Serbian tankmen will participate in the competition, three competing and one reserve group.
“We are opening the competition this year as well. We are in the group with teams from Belarus and Azerbaijan, which were in the finals last year, and with traditionally excellent China, which was in previous years almost always on the winner podium. Our tankmen are motivated and they will give their best to worthily represent our country” says Lieutenant Colonel Rade Adamović from Moscow.
Serbia and Azerbaijan will drive Russian army tanks T-72B3, while Belarus and China have traditionally transported their own materiel. The Belarus will compete with modernised tanks T-72, while the Chinese have brought four tanks “Type-96” which otherwise represent battle tanks of the People’s Liberation Army of China.
The “Tank Biathlon” consists of three phases of competition: individual race, semi-finals relay-race and final relay-race. The best four teams will compete in the finals for the winner’s title. This year, there are going to be 16 countries in the competition, divided in two divisions with eight teams. We hereby remind you that, in previous six competitions, the tankmen of the Serbian Armed Forces achieved their best score in 2015 when they won the third place.
Military drivers are participating for the second time in the “Military Rally", and last year, in their first appearance, they won the third place. They are preparing in the town of Kyzyl, the capital of the Republic of Tyva, where the competition will take place from 23rd to 30th August.
“Our team is intensely preparing and everything goes as planned. The team consists of military vehicles’ drivers from all operational units of the Serbian Armed Forces, the Guard, Signals Brigade, Central Logistic Base and Military Police Battalion “Kobre”. The team captain is Captain Dejan Čejović. We have received from the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation vehicles of makes Ural and Kamaz, with drive formula 4x4 and 6x6. We have prepared them and we are readily waiting for the start of the competition in which, this year, partake teams from Belarus, Uzbekistan, Russia and Serbia” reports from distant Kyzyl Colonel Dragiša Zinaja, leader of our team and at the same time a member of the team of referees at the “Military Rally” competition.
Shooters who will participate in the event “Sniper Frontier” to be held in Belarus, have initiated their daily practices. According to a report of team leader Captain Milentije Ristić, the shooters will ambitiously appear in the competition desiring to repeat excellent results achieved in their previous appearances, when our members Second Lieutenant Đorđe Lapčević and Lance Corporal Ivan Obrenović won gold medals in the event „Mixed couples” of this competition.
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