The training battle lasted almost an hour. The target on the radar screen was now bifurcating, now making sharp maneuvers, then covering itself with a cloud of active interference.

"They're invisible!" - the division commander, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Leontenkov, cursed. - Well, never mind, let's see who's who!

We must pay tribute to the "enemy", who masterfully used all their advantages: the rocket warriors together with the equipment arrived at the training ground two or three days ago and as if they were playing on someone else's field. Clever maneuvers followed one after another. But then one of the best specialists in the division, Captain Andrey Bulanov, whispered in a muffled voice: "Commander! I see the target! Coordinates..."

What happened next was seen by millions of TV viewers in reports about the final stage of the Air Bridge-99 exercise. One by one, the rockets shot up, and a few moments later, a burst of fire broke out in the cloudless sky near Ashuluk. Target hit!

This successful launch went down in the history of the Russian Army also by the fact that for the first time in cooperation with the military transport aviation, the S-300 missile systems were airlifted to a new location and completed all their tasks on the move. The Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, Colonel-General A. Kornukov, who led the exercises, encouraged all the distinguished soldiers. And I, watching the actions of the rocket men, thought: "Invisible men" - a whim, if we have such excellent weapons and specialists of the highest class."

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