Northern Fleet Arctic group deployed to ensure safety of the Northern Sea Route
Ships of the Arctic group of the Northern Fleet, led by the Commander of the Kola Flotilla of diverse forces, Vice Admiral Oleg Golubev, completed maneuvering in the Barents Sea, the fleet press office said.
A formation of ships headed east. On the transition route in the Barents Sea, the warships will conduct air defense, anti-submarine drills along the way, and counter-terrorism exercises for protection of a marine industrial facility.
The following Northern Fleet’s ships were deployed for the Arctic mission: the Udaloy class destroyer Vice-Admiral Kulakov, large landing ships the Alexander Otrakovsky and the Kondopoga, the salvage tug Pamir, the replenishment oiler Sergey Osipov and the icebreaker Ilya Muromets. On August 5 the ships left their homeports of Severomorsk and Murmansk. During the first day, the detachment covered more than 200 nm.
It is planned that the voyage of ships and supply vessels of the Northern Fleet will last for two months and will take place mainly in the basins of the Barents and Kara Seas, in the area of Taimyr Peninsula, the Northern and Novaya Zemlya archipelagos, and Franz Josef Land. One of the main objectives of the mission is to ensure the security of Russia's economic activity in the Arctic.
