Pilots of the 201st base in Tajikistan master mountain survival skills

Flight crews of the Mil Mi-8MTV5-1 transport and attack helicopters and Mil Mi-24 attack helicopters of the 201st military base in Tajikistan are learning mountain survival skills.

The servicemen will practice living off the grid as a crew and alone, and will practice the use of life-saving and life-sustaining equipment, special gear and improvised means. Particular attention will be paid to parachute jumps, long-distance marches, overcoming various obstacles, including water obstacles.

The course will finish with a comprehensive survival training that will last a day.

The pilots will collect water and food, make fire with improvised means and set up places for night halt.

“Russian military bases in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are essentially our ‘vanguard’ in the south and the most important component of the CSTO Collective Forces in the Central Asian region” said Aleksandr Lapin, commander of the Central Military District of the Russian Defense Ministry, in an interview to Kransaya zvezda in December 2021. “That is why we focus on their combat readiness, rearmament and development of its infrastructure.”

“This is a sort of coalition shield and a weighty deterrent for terrorists and extremists in neighbouring states,” said Mr Lapin.

According to Kransaya zvezda, since 90 per cent of the territory of Tajikistan is covered with the highest mountain ranges, combat training of the servicemen of the 201st military base has a distinct mountain focus. All planned activities of combat and logistics units of the base are aimed at preparation for combat operations against terrorist and subversive and reconnaissance groups in mountain environment.