Immediately at several Czech airbases - Namesh, Caslav and Pardubice - military exercises "A proportional strike 2018" (Ample Strike 2018) began, reports BBC News.

Servicemen from 19 countries participate: Belgium, Denmark, Croatia, Canada, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, USA, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

In the maneuvers involved 36 aircraft, including the American tanker KC-135 and strategic bombers B-1 and B-52, German fighters Eurofighter Typhoon and Tornado, as well as Czech JAS-39 Gripen.

The maneuvers will work out the interaction of ground-based airfield commands, the system of refueling in the air.

In addition, according to the publication of the Prague Daily Monitor with reference to the press service of the Czech Defense Ministry, the interaction between crews of aircraft and air gunners - officers of the Air Force, which are present in combat ground units and correct air strikes from the ground.

In the exercise will train 850 Czech and about 200 foreign military. This is just not a very big episode of a large-scale program to strengthen Russia's military-air deterrence system in Eastern Europe.