Russian paratroopers have landed near the Egyptian Capital Cairo in the framework of joint international drills “Defenders of Friendship 2018,” the Russian Defense Ministry’s department of information and media said on Monday.

Joint tactical drills are held on the territory of Egypt on October 13-26 with participation of over 400 servicemen from the two countries. The military exercise will be held on several aerodromes and will involve 15 aircraft and helicopters, as well as 10 units of military equipment dropped by parachute.

“Fifty Russian paratroopers landed as a unit by parachute from the S-130 planes belonging to Egypt's Air Forces,” the Defense Ministry said.

The press service added that over the last eight days, paratroopers from both countries trained to use grenade launchers, machine guns and automatic weapons of different calibers in combat at the training range of Egyptian paratroopers.

“Over the course of combat coordination activities, Egyptian servicemen learned to operate the Ratnik [future infantry combat] system which considerably increases the effectiveness and survival rates of a paratrooper on the battlefield,” the Defense Ministry said.