The Egyptian hosts and their Russian guests took turns manning Egypt’s Russian-made air defense systems during a joint military exercise near Cairo. Each practice target required just one missile to take it down.

The unusual field experience, in which Egyptian and Russian crews could share each other’s operational skills, was the highlight of the two-week ‘Arrow of Friendship’ exercise – the first of its kind held by the two nations.

Egypt operates several Russian-produced air defense systems, including the middle-range Buk-M2 and the short-range Tor-M2 surface-to-air missiles. They were deployed for the exercise, with Russian and Egyptian crews alternately taking control of the hardware.

Zvezda, the TV channel of the Russian Defense Ministry, published footage of the drill. Each of the British- and US-made air target drones used for exercise required just one missile to take them down, the channel reported.

The firing exercise was part of larger maneuvers, in which Egyptian forces trained to respond to a simulated surprise breach by an enemy that put a tank division under threat. Over 100 Russian troops took part in the operation.

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