Russian, Chinese and Serbian military engineers took part in the final stage of Open Water military contest on Oka river. The contest, which took part between August 1-6 in the town of Murom some 300 km from Moscow, included tactical river crossing and the deployment of pontoon ferries.

Held in Russia and Kazakhstan, the 2-week event includes 23 different trials ranging from air, water, and ground operations. The International Army Games 2016 began on July 30 and is set to conclude on August 13. Russia reportedly invited 47 countries to participate, including many NATO members, however only 19 countries accepted, the only NATO country being Greece.

It took the Russian team 44 minutes to deploy pontoons and to cross the river with scouting boats, engineering vehicles, APCs and tanks. Military helicopters were also involved.

Credit: CCTV

The Chinese team secured the second place as they finished the crossing six minutes later. It took the Serbian team one hour and three minutes to cross, Russian TASS agency reported.

"Such activities strengthen friendship, cooperation and exchange (of experience) between us. I think it is also an experience that makes great input into further joint work of our armies," Chinese senior colonel Hui said.

Open gallery view Sukhoi Su-27 jet fighters of the Russkiye Vityazi (Russian Knights) aerobatic team fly in formation in Dubrovichi outside Ryazan, Russia, August 5, 2016. Credit: Reuters

Another trial at the games, the tank biathlon, saw the team of the Chinese People's Liberation Army qualify for the semi-finals on Sunday at the 2016 International Army Games in Russia.

A last Chinese tank competed with the tanks from Iran and Zimbabwe in the last competition. Chinese No. 109 tank surpassed the tank from Zimbabwe at first, and later its main artillery completed shooting. After that, the Chinese tank started to chase an Iranian tank which set off two minutes before hand. In the second round, Chinese tank followed the Iranian tank closely, and the two tanks almost entered the trench at the same time. The Chinese tank later started to speed up in the trench and surpassed the Iranian tank.