In course of the Zapad 2017 Russian-Belarusian strategic exercise, pilots of the Aerospace Forces carried out flights acting as simulated enemy aircraft in order to check readiness of the Western military district.

More than 20 aircraft, including Su-34, Su-35S, Tu-134, An-26, Mi-8, Ka-52, imitated intruders in the Western MD air defence responsibility zone.

The aircraft carried out flights at the altitudes of 50-10,000 meters with different speeds from various directions.

Aircraft mostly flew with turned off transponders at extremely low altitudes and put electronic countermeasures.