Russia has sent a team of military experts to the United States to take part in joint training exercises designed to simulate a hostile takeover of an airplane by terrorists.
The Attentive Eagle 2012 anti-terrorism drills, scheduled between Aug. 27 and 29, will take the form of tactical exercises without troops and will also involve members of the Canadian Air Force, Interfax reported, citing the Defense Ministry.
Defense officials said military experts from Russia's Eastern Military District were taking part in the exercises, which will be monitored from bases in Khabarovsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Colorado Springs and Anchorage.
In the exercises, each participant's military will have to hand over responsibility for a hijacked plane to the other participants as the craft crosses airspace boundaries.
Military officials added that the drills were part of Russian-U.S. military cooperation enshrined in bilateral agreements.
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