Vietnamese artillery to make International Army Games debut

The Vietnamese team is expected to leave for Kazakhstan to attend a centralized training course there in late July. The games will be held from August 23 to September 5.

The "Masters of artillery fire" competition will take place at the Gvardeisky field in Zhambylskaya, southern Kazakhstan.

Each nation is allowed to send three teams - two main teams and a backup.

Each team will have five members: leader, gunner, loader, reloader and driver. They will be equipped with the 2B11 120 mm mortar, the MT-LB, a multipurpose tracked armored vehicle, the PK machine gun, the AK-74M rifle, the RPG-7V, an anti-tank weapon, bulletproof helmets and armors. The national teams will compete against each other both during the day and at night.

The International Army Games is an annual Russian military sports event organized by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

For the Army Games 2020, 31 different competitions will be organized in 10 nations: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and Uzbekistan.

The organizers have so far confirmed the participation of 28 countries and 196 teams.

Last year, Vietnam sent its soldiers to compete in eight different fields. They earned a silver medal in the tank biathlon and a bronze medal each in the safe environment (radiation, chemical and biological defense forces' competition), safe route (competition among engineering units), and emergency rescue personnel contests.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in January that Russia has invited 90 countries, including those from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to take part in the International Army Games 2020.

Speaking at a meeting of the organizing committee of the games, Shoigu said 250 teams with a total of 6,000 participants are expected to take part this year, Russian news agency TASS reported.

Over 20,000 servicemen from 40 countries have taken part in the games in the past five years, it said.