Ukraine to close Black Sea airspace for missile testing
Between Friday and Saturday, Black Sea airspace will be closed to aircraft while the Ukrainian military performs missile tests, Korrespondent reports, citing the Ukrainian Defense Ministry news agency, Army Inform.
“Between August 30-31, 2019, at the Alibi state testing ground of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Odessa province, there will be additional missile launches. The relevant warning regarding the closing of the area to aircraft flights in connection with the danger associated with the missile launches has been placed on the NOTAM (Notice To Airmen) system,” the report states.
Test launches of the modernized Olkha-M missile system and the ZhK-360MTs Neptune anti-ship cruise missile system were already conducted in April this year.
The Olkha was developed by the Luch Design Bureau in Kyiv “in cooperation with other state and private companies in Ukraine’s defense industry”. The missiles will be produced in Ukraine in a closed cycle.
As reported, Ukraine plans to conduct six international exercises in 2019: Ukraine-US, Ukraine-UK, Ukraine-Romania and multinational.
The Riverine 2019 exercise will be held for 10 days sometime before the end of November in the waters of the Danube and the Black Sea. The drill will involve 200 Ukrainians and the same number of Romanian troops.
The Warrior Watcher 2019 exercise will last for 16 days sometime before the end of October at the Ukrainian military airfields and training grounds in the Mykolaiv province. The drills will involve up to 80 Ukrainians and 300 British troops.
Sometime before the end of the year, the multinational Maple Arch 2019 exercise will be held at Ukrainian military training grounds in the Zhytomyr province, involving roughly 100 Ukrainians and 350 personnel from NATO states and members of the Partnership for Peace program.