KHABAROVSK, Russia, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Joint Air Force anti-terror exercises have been planned by the United States and Russia aimed at improving communication interoperability between the countries.
Russian military officials confirmed the announced plan for the Air Force exercises set to take place in the summer of 2008, RIA Novosti reported.
The two countries recently signed a memorandum on bilateral military cooperation in an effort to improve anti-terror interoperability in the case of hijacked plane among other potential terrorist threats facing commercial airline traffic.
"According to the scenario of the exercise, Russian aircraft will attempt to intercept a passenger plane hijacked in Japan when it flies over Russia's Far East, and the U.S. Air Force will do the same when it reaches Alaska," Russian Lt. Gen. Valery Ivanov, chief of the Far Eastern Air Force and Air Defense Joint Command, said in a statement.
Officials say the exercises will benefit the communication between the two countries by practicing interoperability of command-and-control systems and other anti-terror communications.
