New Cold War: Russian ops in Tajikistan, 2021 vid-fest

“This year, we conducted 11 joint exercises through the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.”-Colonel General (U.S. equivalent Lieutenant General) Alexander Lapin, Central Military District, December 2021

In Russia’s Central Military District there were 11 wargames held in 2021. They spread across Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The wargames also included military units from Armenia, Belarus, China, India and Pakistan.

This covers some of what went down in Tajikistan.

Russian Defense Ministry video, January 2021, first Mi-24P & Mi-8MTV5-1 operations of the year:

Russian Defense Ministry video, January 2021, first live-fire gunnery of the year; T-72s (notice the T-72 T-C is wearing a damn Pandemic face mask!) & BTR-82As:

Russian Defense Ministry video, February 2021, live-fire gunnery for mechanized infantry:

Russian Defense Ministry video, March 2021, all those BTRs and T-72s are thirsty:

A full-on wargame was held in Tajikistan, at the end of April 2021, involving more than 3-thousand-5-hundred Russian and Tajik personnel.

Russian Defense Ministry video, April 2021, Sukhoi 25s arrive for the games:

Russian Defense Ministry video, April 2021, BM-21 Grad rocket launchers (the Russian word translates to ‘flamethrower’):

Russian Defense Ministry video, April 2021, load, aim and fire your BM-21:

Mi-8MTV5-1s were busy working training sorties along with Mi-24Ps. Central Military District photo.

Russian Defense Ministry video, April 2021, Mil 24P (NATO reporting name Hind-F):

Russian Defense Ministry video, April 2021, 2S1 (aka M-1974, aka SAU-122):

Russian Defense Ministry video, April 2021, T-72 gunnery, from the point of view of the crew:

Russian Defense Ministry video, April 2021, more T-72 gunnery:

Russian Defense Ministry video, April 2021, 2S3 (aka M-1973, aka SAU-152):

Russian Defense Ministry video, April 2021, BTR-82A:

BTR-82A, in the Khatlon region at the Kharb-Maydon training ground. Central Military District photo.

1-thousand targets were set-up for the August 5-10 wargame in the Khatlon Region, on the Kharb-Maydon training ground.

Anti-tank rocket launchers. The Russian word translates as ‘flamethrower’, this is confusing because in English a flamethrower is a different type of weapon.

The scenario of the August Tajikistan wargame was that the Central Asian country was invaded. About 2-thousand-5-hundred personnel from Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan took part, with about 5-hundred vehicles.

T-72, Central Military District photo.

In November, Russian troops from the 201st Military Base in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, got to try out their new 5.45mm AK-12 assault rifles during the Cobalt 2021 wargame. Central Military District video: