Military helicopter crews trained to fire at low-altitude targets

Members of helicopter crews of the Belarusian Air and Air Defense Force have started practicing to fire machine guns at low-altitude, low-speed targets, Channel One reported on August 5.

The announcement came one month after a plane piloted by Swedish nationals invaded Belarus' airspace and dropped teddy bears on Minsk and the town of Ivyanets in a pro-democracy stunt before flying back to Lithuania unhindered. The incident led to the dismissal of Belarus' border control and air defense chiefs.

Appearing in the channel's show covering army news, an official said that flight engineers representing the 181st Combat Helicopter Base and the 50th Mixed Air Force Base were being trained at the Damanava ground in the Brest region to use machine guns aboard Mi-8 choppers.

During the first few training sessions, the servicemen practiced firing at targets some 15 meters above the ground from a helicopter flying at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour and at an altitude of 100 meters.