Russia Builds Gigantic Military Radar in Arctic

[Hindustani78]

11:00 29.10.2016(updated 11:01 29.10.2016)
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201610291046866256-russia-radar-arctic/

Long-range radar capable of identifying aerial and sea targets hundreds of kilometers away will enter service on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Russian Arctic in 2017, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported citing the Defense Ministry press service in Moscow.

Overall, there will be six such radar installations operating in the region, the official added. Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Buklgakov, who visited the construction site, said that a runway capable of handling all types of combat aircraft was simultaneously being reconstructed nearby.

The so-called “over the horizon” radar is a type of radar system, which is able to detect targets at very long ranges, typically hundreds and thousands of kilometers, beyond the radar horizon, which is the limit for ordinary radar.

It is immune to stealth technology and uses a gigantic antenna array up to five kilometers long and five meters tall, to identify aerial targets 500 kilometers away and sea targets up to 400 kilometers away. During the 2014 drill Podsolnukh (Sunflower), the radar detected a quartet of low flying Sukhoi Su-24 bombers and transferred their coordinates to a missile cruiser, which “shot down” all the four “intruders.” The Podsolnukh’s elder brother – the over the horizon Volna radar has an effective range of 3,000 kilometers and is currently in service near the port city of Nakhodka in the Russian Far East.

 

[Hindustani78]

Interfax news
November 14, 2016

14:13
Sukhoi Su-35S squadron to be deployed to Karelia

 

[Hindustani78]

Russia makes big military push in Arctic

MURMANSK (RUSSIA): January 31, 2017 23:27 IST
Updated: January 31, 2017 23:27 IST

Beefing up presence: Atomic icebreakers Russia and Yamal moored at Atomflo base in the Arctic port of Murmansk, Russia. | Photo Credit: STRINGER

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...g-military-push-in-Arctic/article17124634.ece

Nearly three decades after nuclear icebreaker Lenin was taken out of service to be turned into a visitor attraction, Russia is again on the march in the Arctic and building new nuclear icebreakers.

It is part of a push to firm Moscow’s hand in the High North as it vies for dominance with traditional rivals Canada, the United States, and Norway as well as newcomer China.

Biggest since Soviet fall

Interviews with officials and military analysts and reviews of government documents show Russia’s build-up is the biggest since the 1991 Soviet fall and will, in some areas, give Moscow more military capabilities than the Soviet Union once had.

The expansion has far-reaching financial and geopolitical ramifications. The Arctic is estimated to hold more hydrocarbon reserves than Saudi Arabia and Moscow is putting down a serious military marker.

Under President Vladimir Putin, Moscow is rushing to re-open abandoned Soviet military, air and radar bases on remote Arctic islands and to build new ones, as it pushes ahead with a claim to almost half a million square miles of the Arctic.

Russia is building three nuclear icebreakers, including the world’s largest, to bolster its fleet of around 40 breakers, six of which are nuclear. No other country has a nuclear breaker fleet, used to clear channels for military and civilian ships.

Russia’s Northern Fleet, based near Murmansk in the Kola Bay’s icy waters, is also due to get its own icebreaker, its first, and two ice-capable corvettes armed with cruise missiles.

The build-up is causing jitters elsewhere. Some 300 U.S. Marines landed in Norway this month for a six-month deployment, the first time since World War Two that foreign troops have been allowed to be stationed there. And with memories of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea still fresh, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is watching closely. Six of its members held an exercise in the region in 2015. — Reuters

 

[Hindustani78]

14:45
Chinese participation in developing Arctic shelf may be discussed at Arctic Forum in late March

 

[Solomon2]

Isn't this build-up what Western maritime insurance companies demanded of Russia if they were to fulfill Russian requests to allow more cargoes through the Northeast Passage?

 

[Hindustani78]

https://cdn4.img.sputniknews.com/images/101838/98/1018389820.png


Two nuclear submarines of the held an underwater torpedo duel in the Barents Sea, the deputy head of the Northern Fleet's press service, Captain II rank Andrei Luzik, said.
The Russian strategic missile-carrying Yuri Dolgoruky submarine and the multipurpose Obninsk submarine held the exercise during combat training in the Arctic, the press service of the Northern Fleet said on Friday.

"Submarines' crews completed planned tasks of the combat training course at deep-water testing ranges in the Barents Sea. Torpedo firing on underwater targets was the most difficult and responsible stage of the joint exercises of the two ships. The submarines carried out [the drill] in a duel option."

Each submarine launched a torpedo without a combat unit. After the drill was completed, ammunition was picked up by a torpedo recovery vessel. Moreover, the Russian submarines practiced searching for and secretly tracking 'foreign' submarines and conducted evasion training using jamming countermeasures and cover targets, as well as combat maneuvering emphasizing offensive positioning.

The Yuri Dolgoruky strategic submarine cruiser is armed with intercontinental Bulava ballistic missiles. It also has six 533 mm caliber torpedo tubes. The K-535 Yuri Dolgoruky is a fourth-generation submarine and the first in the Borei-class series. According to official data, there are currently two Borei-class submarines — the Yuri Dolgoruky and the Vladimir Monomakh — in service with the Northern Fleet.

By 2020, the Russian Navy plans to operate a total of eight submarines of this type. It has three Borei submarines in operation, including the Alexander Nevsky in service with the Pacific Fleet, and four more under construction, namely Emperor Alexander III, Knyaz Vladimir, Knyaz Oleg and Generalissimus Suvorov.

Borei-class nuclear-powered subs are to become the mainstay of the naval component of the country’s strategic nuclear deterrent.

Earlier, a defense industry source told Sputnik that the tests by Russia's advanced deep-water homing torpedo Futlyar (Fizik-2) will wrap up this year and the Russian Navy is to introduce it into service in 2018. According to publicly available sources, Futlyar would be capable of reaching speeds of more than 60 knots and a depth of more than 540 yards and would be able to hit targets at a range of over 35 miles.

Russian oil and gas fields in the Arctic

Yuri Dolgoruky submarine
© Lev Fedoseev/TASS

 

[Hindustani78]

https://sputniknews.com/military/201703291052084234-arctic-nuclear-sub/
Russian scientists are developing first ever civilian nuclear-powered submarine to conduct seismological surveys and search for natural resources under ice in the Arctic, the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects (RFARP) told Sputnik on Wednesday.
ARKHANGELSK (Sputnik) — The Arctic region is considered to be a major source of hydrocarbons, minerals, fresh water and fish. The region's resources are a matter of interest for states bordering the area. The icebreaker fleet is needed to escort vessels in the area breaking ice, covering the ocean.

"It is a nuclear-powered submarine, which has…launch tubes to deploy research robots, autonomous unmanned underwater vehicles to be used for seismological surveys and the search for any types of natural resources," Viktor Litvinenko, RFARP project group manager, said.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?pg=6&id=744601

March 31, 2017 12:39

Russia to complete construction of military infrastructure in Arctic by 2020 - Shoigu
MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian state's resources enable it to build military infrastructure in the Arctic as planned, Russian Defense Minister Gen. of the Army Sergei Shoigu said during a teleconference at the Defense Ministry on Friday.

"We put quite a large number of facilities into operation every year. This year we need to finish our work on some of the islands. There are major plans for 2018. We should complete all of these efforts by 2020," Shoigu said.

Russia's financial resources and "our country's plans reliably guarantee the creation of this infrastructure in the North," he said.

http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?pg=8&id=744554

ARKHANGELSK. March 31 (Interfax) - There are plans to build four rescue centers of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry in the Arctic in a few years, Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov said during a working trip to Arkhangelsk.

"We have approved plans and programs and intend to break the ground for building four additional Arctic rescue centers as early as in 2017. This program will be completed in 2020," Puchkov said.

The ministry will fully cover the Arctic zone with this project, the minister said, adding that new hardware, equipment and gear had been commissioned for enabling Arctic rescuers to efficiently accomplish their missions in the Extreme North.

"Jointly with big companies, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry has been supporting every economic infrastructural project in the trans-Polar zone, from the elaboration of pre-design concepts to every stage of technological operations. We thus ensure high economic efficiency and safety of the projects by use of Russia's latest techniques," Pushkov said.

Six Arctic rescue centers are already operational, the minister said. The rescuers have been trained and equipped to accomplish missions in the trans-Polar zone, he said.

The ministry is set to reinforce the Arctic group of forces, Puchkov said.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://tass.com/defense/953095

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. Innovative developments for protecting military facilities in the Arctic amid permafrost conditions will be discussed at the Army-2017 international military and technical forum, the Defense Ministry of Russia said on Friday.

"During the thematic roundtable discussion that will be held at the Army-2017 international military and technical forum, specialists of the Russian Defense Ministry will discuss available and innovative developments of industrial enterprises and organizations in the sphere of the systems of protecting military facilities, and also the possibility of their use in the interests of the Russian Army, including in the Arctic amid permafrost conditions," the Defense Ministry said.

The Russian Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Force Management and Military Service Security will hold a briefing at the forum to focus on the issues of improving the requirements for technical complexes of protecting the Armed Forces’ facilities of various categories, taking into account the experience of their practical use, the ministry said.

Events of the Army-2017 forum’s scientific and business program will be held on August 23-26 and will be attended by leading scientists, specialists in specific research areas and public figures, the Defense Ministry said.

A total of 23 conference halls and negotiating rooms for over 2,000 persons have been prepared on the territory of the Patriot congress and exhibition center to hold the forum’s roundtable discussions, briefings and workshops, the ministry said.

The Army-2017 third international military and technical forum will be held on August 22-27 on the sites of the Patriot center, the Alabino training range and the Kubinka aerodrome in the Moscow Region, and also in all of Russia’s military districts and in the Northern Fleet.