Yesterday, March 14, 2025, Ukrainian long-range kamikaze drones An-196 “Lyutyi” struck the 333rd combat training center near the city of Mulino, Nizhny Novgorod region.
This is not just a training center, it is equipped with modern complexes with electronic training tools and has a large training ground for training battles. It is capable of training up to 700 servicemen at the same time, and about 30 thousand servicemen per year can complete a full course of training.
Interestingly, this training center under a contract with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation was to be built by the German and Russian companies Rheinmetall and OJSC Rosoboronservice, respectively. The contract value was 100 million euros. Rheinmetall announced the details of the contract in official announcement.
The contract was concluded in 2011 and provided for the completion of the work in 2014. Under the contract, Rheinmetall had to: design the center’s systems, develop and supply communication systems and a system for debriefing battles, build a complex of houses, manufacture a system of laser combat simulators and conduct training for the center’s personnel.
But after the German government imposed sanctions against Russia in 2014 due to the annexation of Crimea, Rheinmetall terminated the contract.
However, Russian sources claim that before the termination of the contract, the company managed to: design all the systems of the center, train part of the center’s personnel, help deploy a communication system, build a complex of houses, and manufacture, but not supply, laser combat simulation systems.
Due to the introduction of sanctions, the opening of the center was postponed. In 2015, due to the rush, the center was partially opened, the other part was put into operation as it was under construction, because at that time it was still unfinished.
In 2022, the 3rd Army Corps was formed on the basis of the training ground specifically for the war in Ukraine. But the formation of the 3rd Home Army was not without its problems, the corps itself and the locals from the city of Mulino experienced some difficulties, due to significant understaffing, low level of discipline and uncontrolled drunkenness.
The 333rd Combat Training Center has a total area of more than 500 square kilometers. On the territory of the training ground of the center, several towns were built with imitation of urban and rural buildings. At the time of 2015, the center had about 150 simulators for training in various types of equipment and weapons, from small arms to tanks. Probably, their number may be much higher at the moment.
In addition to conducting training battles at the training ground with a laser combat simulation system, it was reported about the possibility of combining all the center’s simulators in a virtual space for large-scale training battles, in different theaters of operations.