On 3 September, the “Combat Commonwealth 2019” joint military exercises of the joint air defence forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) began at the Ashuluk military training facility in Russia. The divisions of Armenia, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan will participate in the exercise.

The heads of military units addressed the participants noting the exercise will serve as a good opportunity for exchange of experience and development of professional skills relating to the Joint CIS Air Defence System. The head of the Armenian unit, Artur Poghosyan, Deputy Head of the Air Defence Troops' Department at the Ministry of Defence Colonel, wished success and fruitful participation to all servicemen involved in the drills.

The main purpose of the exercise is to put the units of the countries of Air Defence and Missile Defence on highest level of combat alert. The Joint CIS Air Defence System was established by the 1995 Almaty agreement. Its aims are to protect the air boundaries of the CIS member states, the joint control of the CIS airspace, the monitoring of aerospace posture, and the air/missile strike early warning and coordinated response. There have been 13 exercises in this format so far, being held every second year.  At the first stage of the practice the servicemen will practice combat alerting at their permanent bases and the active part of the exercise will take place on 5 September.