‘Terrorists’ with combat aircraft
A skeptical Roger McDermott asks just what kind of terrorists the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is training to fight in its joint exercises: On September 24, Russian defense ministry controlled Zvezda TV, showed footage of the exercise which exemplified the dichotomy between the forces used and the unfolding “counter-terrorist” scenario: Su-25 fighter jets, soldiers in trenches, ...
A skeptical Roger McDermott asks just what kind of terrorists the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is training to fight in its joint exercises:
A skeptical Roger McDermott asks just what kind of terrorists the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is training to fight in its joint exercises:
On September 24, Russian defense ministry controlled Zvezda TV, showed footage of the exercise which exemplified the dichotomy between the forces used and the unfolding “counter-terrorist” scenario: Su-25 fighter jets, soldiers in trenches, use of an antiaircraft missile system (Strela), commanders at an observation post, tank maneuvers, all apparently aimed at encircling a town to block the escape route of the “terrorists.” It appears that the exercise scenario in this instance envisaged the arrival of several massive groups of militants supported by “combat aviation,” gradually penetrating the territory of an SCO member state. Moreover, on September 22, Zvezda TV broadcast footage of a combined “massive strike” against “terrorists” using airpower and missiles launched from the Russian Tochka U complex (Zvezda TV, September 22, 24).
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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