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Newly-established mobile fire groups have completed training and assumed combat duty to defend energy facilities and administrative centers from drones, the press office of Russia’s Moscow Military District announced on July 1.
“The Moscow Military District has concluded a new cycle of combat training for mobile fire groups… Following the completion of the training process, the newly formed units have gone on combat alert to secure facilities of the fuel and energy sector and administrative centers,” the press office said in a statement.
“The training program based on the experience of the special military operation included firearms, engineering and medical support operations and the methods of countering unmanned aerial vehicles,” it added.
During the training, the group fired at fast-moving small-size aerial targets from heavy machine guns and smoothbore guns and learned to promptly change positions, according to the Moscow Military District.
“The groups trained to detect drones visually and with technical devices, suppress them by electronic warfare systems and destroy them by fire under intense jamming. They practiced unit cohesion operations: target acquisition, target engagement by fire and support provision,” the press office said.
The training also focused on field fortifications, equipment camouflaging and the evacuation of wounded personnel under enemy fire, it added.
While the statement didn’t clarify if the new mobile fire groups will be armed with man-portable air defense systems, better known as MANPADS, specialized squads equipped with such missiles are known to be already deployed around Moscow.
The Moscow Military District didn’t disclose if these groups will be equipped with interceptor drones, although this is highly likely.
Earlier in the week, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said during a meeting with military correspondents that mobile fire groups all over Russia will be equipped with interceptors.
“The situation changes nearly every two months. In all the Groups of Forces, there is the echeloned system of tactical interceptors protection. Mobile firing groups are armed with FPV interceptors. Now we’re intensively implementing it, beginning from April we have been intensively creating a unified information environment to increase situational awareness,” the minister said.
Ukraine increased attempts to reach Moscow in recent months, going as far as sending hundreds of one-way attack drones at times on the hope of overwhelming Russian air defenses hitting energy facilities and administrative centers inside the capital and in its outskirts.
The mobile fire groups will strengthen the lower layer of Moscow’s air defense network. This is not, however, Russia’s only answer to recent Ukrainian drone attacks on the capital.
The deployment of additional advanced short-range air defenses was reported in the last few weeks, including the installation of several Pantsir-SMD-E systems on high points around Moscow.
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· years ago i wrote about to create a mobile groups drone hunters with pick ups trucks( like tornado hunters), but armed with fpv drones and machineguns, all of them in cordination, it seems that russian generals and bureaucracy needs years to activate a project