Traffic to be limited in central Moscow due to May 9 parade rehearsal

Tag: Military Dress
MOSCOW, May 3 (Itar-Tass) -- Traffic will be limited in central Moscow on sty on Saturday due to a rehearsal of the military parade Moscow’s Red Square on the occasion of VE-Day that is traditionally celebrated in Russia on May 9.Traffic police have asked car owners to be careful, use alternative routes and follow road signs and traffic policemen’s instructions.Over 8,000 soldiers and officers from the Moscow military garrison will be involved in the rehearsal, the press service of the Moscow Military District said.The rehearsal will include infantry and motorised units. Young drummers from military schools will be the first to enter the square. They will set the rhyme for servicemen from military academies and other higher educational institutions, and several battalions of paratroopers, mariners and Interior Troops.Army and Navy school cadets and a combined military orchestra will bring up the rear.They will be followed by about 200 pieces of military hardware, including 90 wheeled vehicles. Caterpillar vehicles will be provided with special caterpillars that do not damage the roads.The Army will provide T-90 tanks, BMP-3 personnel carriers, BTR-80 armoured fighting vehicles, self-propelled Iskander missile systems, Smerch multiple launchers, Msta self-propelled systems, and truck-mounted Buk air defence systems.The Strategic Rocket Forces will be represented by four Topol mobile ground-based launch systems.The Airborne Troops will contribute BMD-4 landing vehicles and Sprut self-propelled systems. Fighting vehicles will drive in two columns from the building of the History Museum through the square and onto Vasileyvsky Spusk Street, then turn right and go back to their base.Preparations for the parade started on March 11. The dress rehearsal is scheduled for May 5.The Air Force has one more rehearsal to hold too. The previous rehearsal on April 29 was successful. Air Force Commander Colonel-General Alexander Zelin, who supervised the rehearsal, said he was satisfied with the piloting and expected further rehearsals to be equally successful.“Air Force pilots last took part in the parade on May 9, 1995,” long-range aviation chief of staff, Major-General Anatoly Zhikharev said.“This year’s air force parade will involve all types of planes used by long-range aviation, including Tu-160 and Tu-95MS … They will demonstrate refuelling from an Il-76 tanker plane in midair,” Zhikharev said.In his words, long-range aviation planes will fly over the city escorted by fighter planes. “There will be no aerobatics over Red Square because they are is prohibited,” he said.The world’s largest military transport plane An124 Ruslan will also take part in the parade.“The An-124 Ruslan plane from the 566th Air Transport Regiment will represent transport aviation at the May 9 parade,” Air Force Assistant Commander, Cololenl Alexander Drobyshevsky said.“An-124 is the heaviest strategic military transport plane in the world that can perform complex missions and carry bulky combat hardware for big distances. In the future it will also be involved in a number of space programmes as an aerial launching pad for carrier rockets,” Drobyshevsky said.An-124 Ruslan has a takeoff mass of 405 tonnes. Its range is 4,500 kilometres, maximum speed 865 kilometres per hour, operating ceiling 9,500 metres, payload up to 150 tonnes.Drobyshevsky also said earlier that the Air Force would be represented on the ground, by mechanised units, and in the air.“On the ground, there will be two formations consisting of officers from the Gagarin Air Force Academy and the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy,” Drobyshevsky said.Mechanised units will include four S-300 air defence systems.Besides, over 30 planes and helicopters will fly over Red Square, including Russian Knights and Swifts aerobatics groups.“Due to objective reasons, new pilots have joined the groups. Three left and three new were taken on to replace them. Two more have changed their place in the formation,” the commander of the 316th Air Force Army, Major-General Alexander Belevich said.In his words, the pilots are 70-80 percent prepared for the parade.Air Force Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsin said a Su-25 attack plane would take part in the parade as well.“Thirty-two aircraft belonging to the Air Force, including a Su-25 attack plane, will fly over Red Square during the parade,” he said.