Saha Expo International Defense Exhibition Turkey Istanbul

Arctic Russian military grouping will be completed by 2018 TASS 42310151

Armies in the world - Russia

Arctic Russian military grouping will be completed by 2018

Formation of the Russian Arctic military grouping will be completed by 2018, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said. "By 2018 we must fully complete the formation and arming of the entire Arctic grouping," Shoigu said at the press conference of the Russian Geographic Society /RGS/.

Russian modern Arctic base will be completed by 2018

"In 2016-2017 the Russian MoD will finish rebuilding six airdromes in the Arctic," the Defense Minister added.

"We’re simultaneously rebuilding six airdromes. Part of the job will be done this year, the bulk being scheduled for 2016 through 2017. First, this is the Tiksi airdrome, after which we’ll pass on to the joint basing airdrome.

We’ll do this together with resource companies, for instance, Yamal SPG," Shoigu said. In summer the Spetsstroi of Russia /Special Purpose Construction Agency/ reported that by 2018 nine airdromes will be outfitted in the Arctic, part of which will be updated and part built from scratch for enabling the flights of Long Range and Military Transport Aviation. Specifically, construction of a new airdrome is underway in Rogachevo, runways are being broadened on the Kotelny Island and the Schmidt Cape.

It was previously reported that in 2014 the radar field over Russia’s Arctic had been fully closed. In May 2015, the Il-76 military transport aircraft /NATO reporting name Candid/ landed for the first time on a temporary, snow-covered airdrome of seasonal suitability located on the island of Alexandra Land, Franz Josef Archipelago.

In the autumn of 2015, an airdrome on the Schmidt Cape is due to go into operation. Since 2017 the Tiksi airdrome will host frontline aviation aircraft and MiG-31 interceptors /NATO reporting name Foxhound/. In addition, the interceptors will be based at Anadyr.

Also, a grouping of unmanned aerial vehicles /UAV/ is being formed in the Arctic. This grouping is expected to be armed both with airdrome-based UAVs and mobile complexes. Their main functions will be ensuring security of navigation in the Arctic zone and aerial reconnaissance in the littoral regions and Russian territorial waters monitored by the Eastern Military District /EMD/. This will be stationed at one of the district airdromes near Anadyr.

In addition the Defense Minister said that close to completion is construction of a military base on the Kotelny Island of the New Siberian Islands Archipelago.

"We don’t conceal from anybody that we’ve actually completed the creation of the base on the Kotelny Island of the New Siberian Islands Archipelago. This is a large base of a kind there wasn’t in the Soviet era. This is a state-of-the-art facility with everything required for operations in those parts," Shoigu said.

A somewhat smaller base is deployed on the Wrangel Island. Also, bases will be built on the Schmidt Cape, on the eastern coast of Chukotka and on the Kurile Islands.

It was previously reported that construction of the Arctic Trefoil complex on the island of Alexandra Land, Franz Josef Archipelago, comprised by the Northern Fleet military infrastructure in the Arctic, is 97% complete. The complex’s self-sufficiency will provide comfortable lodging and performance of duty for a group of 150 servicemen during a year and a half.

The Arctic Trefoil is the second unique closed cycle complex being erected for the Northern Fleet in the Arctic high latitude regions. The first one, built at the 75th degree of Northern latitude, was the Northern Clover complex on the Kotelny Island, the New Siberian Islands Archipelago.