Amidst Ukraine War, Russia to hold Army-2022 Arms Show

Russia will display full-scale samples of weapons meant for export at the Army 2022 Forum to be held in August, even as the war with Ukraine continues.

"In 2022, full-scale samples of Russian weapons and military equipment exported by Rosoboronexport will be presented to journalists and specialized foreign experts in the widest possible way as part of the Army-2022 International Military-Technical Forum (August 15-21, Kubinka),” state-owned Rosoboronexport said in a statement.

In the recent years, the company said, focus is on the development of drones and robots, and other high-tech products with elements of artificial intelligence, precision-guided munitions.

On May 9, a military parade to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s Victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War took place on Moscow’s Red Square. This year’s edition of the Victory Day parade involved 11,000 troops and 131 items of military and special hardware.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, told local media that the aerial segment of the ceremony was canceled because of "bad weather.” It was intended to involve 77 fixed-and rotary-wing aircraft including several MiG jets and Il-80, the "doomsday" plane that the Russians claim is nuke-proof.

Russian servicemen who took part in battles in the Donbass region also took part in the military parade, state media reported.

A T-34 tank traditionally led the mechanized column at the Victory Day Parade. The mechanized column included Taifun off-road armored vehicles, BMP-2, BMP-3 and Kurganets-25 infantry fighting vehicles, T-72B3M, T-90M ‘Proryv’ and T-14 ‘Armata main battle tanks, Iskander-M tactical missile systems, Msta-S howitzers and Tornado-G multiple launch rocket systems, Tor-M2, Buk-M3 and S-400 ‘Triumf’ surface-to-air missile systems, Yars ICBM launchers and Uran-9 combat robotic vehicles.

The numerous commemorative events for the May day in the Russian cities had the skies being populated by 5^th Generation Su-57 fighters along with multirole fighters Su-30M and Su-35S. Military transport aircraft and tankers of the Il-76/78 type, combat helicopters Mi-28N and Ka-52 also took part in these events.

Similar events being held in a number of other countries had displayed multiple Russian military equipment such as the Tigr and Patrol special-purpose armored vehicles, the Kord heavy machine gun, the 7.62-mm Pecheneg machine gun, and the 5.45-mm machine gun. Kalashnikov AK-12, unmanned multifunctional complex "Orlan-10", etc.