Russian military presence in the Arctic is essentially a response to the increase of specialized Arctic military formations by other countries.
Creation of the Arctic group began with the restoration of military infrastructure at the New Siberian Islands and Franz Josef Land.
Necessity
Russia officially has an exclusive economic zone extending 370 miles from its shores. But the Russian Federation claims the expansion of this zone. After all, the Arctic shelf can boast up to 13% of the world's undiscovered oil reserves and 30% of natural gas.
However, a number of other countries, including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada and even China claim their rights to the mineral resources of the Arctic. For example, Canada claims the right to the North Pole.
In recent years, the share of military budgets of competing countries allocated for training for combat operations in the northern latitudes has shown a significant increase.
In its turn, Russia has decided to establish group of armed forces, including submarines and surface forces, naval aviation, coastal troops and air defense facilities in the Arctic on the basis of the Northern Fleet.
The new strategic command began to operate in the Arctic on December 1, 2014. Admiral Vladimir Korolev, the Commander of the Northern Fleet was appointed to the position of Chief of the Joint Strategic Command “North”. The Western, Central and Eastern Military Districts transferred individual military units to the structure of the prospective command. The Northern Fleet passed to the new control with all the coastal area “without any withdrawals in the combat strength, naval strength and personnel”.
However, the decision to build up forces in the North was not taken in one day. Back in 2011, Moscow promised that it would prepare the 200th Motor Rifle Brigade for operations in arctic conditions. Sergei Shoigu, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, said in December 2013 that the reconditioning of airfields and berthing facilities at Franz Josef Land and the New Siberian Islands had already begun within preparation to the creation of a new military district.
Structure
By mid-December, the creation of units of the Northern Fleet on the Alexandra Land Island (Franz Josef Land archipelago) was virtually completed. Works at the Kotelny Island (New Siberian Islands) have been accelerated. Here the ultimate goal is to prepare the airstrip to accommodate all types of aircraft, including heavy transports and strategic bombers in the permafrost conditions. In addition, the 99th Tactical Group has already been deployed and settled down here. It is expected that it will be reinforced by “Rubezh” and “Pantsir-S” batteries among other things.
Some military infrastructure facilities are located at other sites, including the islands of the Alexander I Land (Franz Josef Land archipelago), Wrangel Island, Novaya Zemlya and Cape Schmidt. Radar stations and air direction centers are being deployed there. For instance, troops at Wrangel Island and Cape Schmidt have been performing combat duty since October 2014.
The most noteworthy radar station is the all-weather short-wave short-range radar “Podsolnukh”. It provides round the clock monitoring of surface and air situation at a distance of 450 km. Up to 300 marine and 100 aerial objects can be tracked simultaneously with releasing target designation to kill.
The construction of new border posts of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation and air-defense missile facilities of air defense forces are being constructed at the Arctic coast. In January, the air defense division of the Northern Fleet received the air-defense missile systems S-400 “Triumph”. The system is designed to destroy air and space threats: strategic aircrafts (including the stealth planes) and tactical aircrafts, reconnaissance aircrafts, all kinds of ballistic missiles, hypersonic targets, jammers, radar surveillance and guidance aircrafts etc. Each ADMS is able to simultaneously fire at 36 targets with guiding up to 72 missiles to them.
If no buildings suitable for renovation have been preserved from the Soviet period, the personnel are temporarily accommodated in residential modular complexes.
By the end of the last year, 4 military airfields operated in the Russian Arctic, including the “Temp” on the Kotelny Island. In general, the construction and reconstruction of the aviation proving ground, 10 technical positions of radar stations and air direction centers, as well as 13 airfields have been planned. Seven northern airfields located in the towns of Tiksi, Naryan-Mar, Alykel, Amderma, Anadyr, as well as in the village of Rogachevo and the Nagurskoe frontier post are among them.
The next step is the creation of two separate motor rifle brigades. According to Oleg Salyukov, Commander of the Land Forces, their task will include “coastal patrols, ensuring security of the facilities and areas along the coasts of the northern seas and the Arctic Ocean, securing passage and escorting ships along the Northern Sea Route, as well as demonstration of the military presence in the Arctic”.
Formation of the independent motor rifle brigade in the Murmansk Region has almost been completed. The Second Arctic brigade will be formed during 2016 in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.
As promised by the Commander-in-Chief, the Arctic units will be equipped with all-terrain vehicles – two-section transporters, snowmobiles, as well as hovercrafts.
Viktor Sukhomlinin
