MOSCOW, May 23 (RIA Novosti) - A major Russian-U.S. military exercise will be held in Russia and Germany from May 23 till June 3, the Russian Army press service told RIA Novosti. The Russian-based part of the exercise codenamed Torgau-2005, Lieutenant Colonel German Zhitenev of the press service said, will involve 139 U.S. servicemen, including 52 commissioned officers of the U.S. Forces European Command and 87 motorized infantry men, spearheaded by Major General David T. Zabecki, U.S. Army.
On the Russian side, Lieutenant General Alexei Potapov, deputy chief of the Joint Forces Military Academy, will be in charge of his 137 men and of the exercise overall.
The first stage of the exercise, May 23 to 28, will take place in Moscow, at the Academy, and at its training field near Solnechnogorsk, a town about 60 km from the capital.
"The active phase of the Russian-based part of the exercise will take place on May 27 at the Solnechnogorsk training field and will include brigade-level defensive tactics and live firing exercises with tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers, and rifles," the press service officer said. He added the Torgau-2005 was aimed at improving coherence of the decision-making process on the battlefield and training of Russian-American brigade-level defensive combat and interaction.
Last year's Russian-based Torgau-2004 exercise involved 60 U.S. officers from the U.S. forces deployed in Southern Europe and consisted in a computer wargame at the Joint Forces Academy, in which Russian and American virtual brigades were involved in a peacekeeping operation in a third country. In Solnechnogorsk, the Russians and Americans learnt to reconnoiter unfamiliar terrain.
For the second stage, the exercise will move on May 29 till June 3 to Grafenwoehr, the largest European military training site based in Southern Germany. It is organic to the 15,000-man Seventh Army Training Command, USAREUR, and deploys 6,500 U.S. troops at a time. About 7,000 members of their families also live there.
