Zapad 2017: The Enemy Has No Chance

Zapad 2017: The Enemy Has No Chance




Zapad 2017: The Enemy Has No Chance

The Russia-Belarus Zapad 2017 joint strategic military exercises started September 14 on the territories of the two allied countries.

The large-scale joint war games involve up to 12,700 servicemen, 70 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters,

680 items of ground-based military equipment, including about 250 tanks, 200 artillery systems, multiple rocket launchers and mortars, and 10 warships.

The exercises, which run through September 20, take place both at Belarusian firing ranges and the firing ranges of Russia's Kaliningrad, Leningrad and Pskov Regions.

Russia’s Zapad-17 Has Already Succeeded

Russia organizes large-scale strategic military exercises once a year in some part of its vast nation. Every four years, this exercise takes place in the Western Strategic Direction, between the Arctic Ocean and the Black Sea, under the heading of Zapad (“West”). These quadrennial exercises are not a new phenomenon, but the forthcoming Zapad-17 exercise has received a huge amount of attention in the West, even before it has formally started.