Moscow: The Eighth International Army Games (IAG-2022) will take place at military training facilities in twelve countries: Russia, Azerbaijan, Algeria, Armenia, Belarus, Venezuela, Vietnam, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and Uzbekistan. They will be from August 13-27, 2022. For military members of Russia and many other countries, the IAG is a series of field combat training competitions.

The Games are organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Soldiers and officers from different weapons and services compete in army games to showcase their skills and abilities. Units from Russia that won the most recent national army competitions that tested their professional abilities are represented. Usually, the country hosting the Games in a particular context provides the necessary equipment. For example, most competitors in tank biathlon use Russian tanks, while Russian military competitors in China compete using Chinese gear in many events. At the same time, China usually uses its own equipment to compete in events in Russia and other countries.

More than 260 teams from 35 countries will participate in the 2022 Games. Bolivia and Rwanda are the two recent immigrants.

History of IAG

In 2013, Russia hosted the Tank Biathlon and Aviadarts international competitions for tank crews. Both aroused great interest both inside and outside Russia. Following their success, the Russian Defense Ministry decided to hold a Military Olympics to improve both the combat readiness of the Russian military and global military cooperation. 56 teams from 17 countries including Azerbaijan, Angola, Armenia, Belarus, Venezuela, Egypt, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Kuwait, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia and Tajikistan participated in the Games. For the first time on 1–15 August 2015 at eleven military training grounds in Russia. In addition to Brazil, Iran, Vietnam, the Republic of Korea, Myanmar, Turkmenistan and Vietnam sent observers to the IAG. The event saw 14 competitions on land, air and sea. Russia won the most medals overall (31 gold), China came second (three gold) and Belarus came third (one gold).

Since then, the International Army Games have been held annually, and starting in 2016, they have also been held at training grounds outside Russia. Russian competitors consistently performed exceptionally well in the team standings. Five times, China came in second, followed by one each for Belarus and Kazakhstan. Several changes have been made to the schedule and the contest list.

The International Army Games-2021 took place from 22 August to 4 September that year in eleven countries (Russia, Algeria, Armenia, Belarus, Vietnam, Iran, Qatar, Kazakhstan, China, Serbia, Uzbekistan). The 34 competitions featured more than 5,000 military personnel (277 teams from 42 countries), a record for the Games. With 34 medals, the Russian team took first place (including 18 gold). Uzbekistan ranked third, China second (4 gold) and (4 gold).

Program IAG

The Tank Biathlon, a competition for tank crews, is one of 34 events in the 2022 International Army Games schedule. Individual races, sprint, pursuit, and relay races were taken from the regular biathlon for its stages. It has been held annually since 2013 at the Albino training facility close to Moscow. Russia, Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Laos, Mali, Mongolia, Myanmar, Syria, Sudan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and South Ossetia will all compete this time (participating). The list of countries having been taken from the official website of the Games as of 12 August). Most competing teams use T-72B3 tanks supplied by the organisers.

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