Air defense missile regiment on Novaya Zemlya / Photo: function.mil.ru
In the Northern Fleet, a new anti-aircraft missile regiment of the Kola Air Defense Unit has taken up combat duty to protect the state border of the Russian Federation in the air.
Its location is the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. The regiment is armed with modernized anti-aircraft missile systems capable of reliably hitting enemy air attack weapons within a radius of several hundred kilometers.
The anti-aircraft missile regiment became the first full-fledged military unit of the Northern Fleet formed on the islands of the Arctic Ocean. Until this time, only individual units and groups were stationed in these latitudes.
Air defense missile regiment on Novaya Zemlya / Photo: function.mil.ru
The regiment's weapons, military and special equipment were delivered to the archipelago within a year. In a short time, position areas were prepared and complexes were deployed, whose combat crews took up combat duty.
For military personnel of the regiment serving on Novaya Zemlya, a number of benefits and privileges are provided: increased leave and pay, provision of food rations and vitamins, double calculation of length of service, an additional coefficient for pension and the right to a planned replacement at the request of the serviceman after a 3-year period. services on the islands of the Arctic Ocean, reports the press service of the Northern Fleet (Severomorsk).
Technical information
Currently, the medium-range anti-aircraft missile system of various modifications is the basis of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Russian Air Force.
Photo: Press service of the Russian Defense Ministry
The S-300 anti-aircraft missile system is designed to cover military groups and strategic army facilities, stationary command posts, headquarters, military bases, administrative centers and industrial facilities from attacks by ballistic and cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, strategic and tactical aviation.
The creation of an anti-aircraft missile system designed to replace the S-75 air defense system began in the mid-60s. At the initiative of the command of the country's air defense forces and KB-1 of the Ministry of Radio Industry, the development of the S-500U anti-aircraft anti-aircraft missile system with a far border of the target destruction zone of about 100 km, unified for three branches of the military - air defense, ground forces and navy - began. Subsequently, taking into account the individual characteristics of each type of troops, it was decided to develop, according to uniform tactical and technical requirements, the most unified universal (anti-aircraft and anti-missile) anti-aircraft missile system, which received a new name - S-300, intended for:
Since the systems were developed in various design bureaus and research institutes, deep cross-species unification of systems to meet sometimes very contradictory requirements was never achieved. For example, in the S-300P and S-300V systems, only 50% of the functional detection radar devices were unified.
The missiles have original combat equipment. Heavy fragments and high kinetic energy of the explosion are focused in a limited solid angle, which significantly increases the energy flux density of the fragments and guarantees complete destruction of the target, including its warhead, regardless of the angle at which the missile meets the target.
Photo: Press service of the Russian Defense Ministry
| Maximum range of destruction of aerodynamic targets, km: | 200 |
| Minimum range of destruction of aerodynamic targets, km: | 3 |
| Maximum height for hitting aerodynamic targets, m: | Practical ceiling for combat use |
| Minimum height for hitting aerodynamic targets, m: | 10 |
| Maximum speed of targets hit, m/s | 2800 |
| Number of simultaneously fired targets | up to 36 |
| Number of simultaneously guided missiles | up to 72 |
| Deployment (collapse) time of the system's combat assets, min. | 5 |
| Rocket launch | vertical |
| Continuous operation time (with refueling) | not limited |
| temperature, °C | ±50 |
| humidity at temperature +35°С, % | 98 |
While the entire population of our vast Motherland is voting on the name for a nuclear-powered cruise missile, it’s time to remember the Central Test Site of the Russian Federation, located on Novaya Zemlya, the part of it where nuclear weapons were once tested.
By the way, which name do you like better? "Palmyra", "Surprise" or "Petrel"? It seems to me that “Palmyra” is better, especially if the next test of the Kyrgyz Republic takes place in Syria.
One of the concrete bunkers with an observation window
There are three large settlements on Novaya Zemlya. In the southwestern part of the archipelago, the villages of Belushya Guba and Rogachevo with a former fighter aviation airfield and air defense and air defense units are located next to each other. It is Belushya Guba that is now the logistics hub for providing and managing the Central Test Site.
The village of Severny is located on the shore of the Matochkin Shar Strait and in the past was a base for conducting nuclear tests at two sites for underground explosions (the southern shore of Matochkin Shar near the village) and air explosions, 50 kilometers to the north, where it was blown up the so-called "Tsar Bomba". According to open data, there is currently no permanent population in the village.
Nevertheless, there is a rich infrastructure left around from nuclear weapons tests, which can be partially studied with the help of Wikimapia.
You and I will go a little further south to the Pankova Land peninsula on the western coast of Novaya Zemlya and, using scant sources, we will try to map it and understand what remains of the so-called Automation Command Panel of Zone “D” (First Test Site Control Panel), associated with the conduct of aerial nuclear explosions. This place in Wikimapia is marked as the non-residential village of Pankovo, located 2 km from the seashore.
Unfortunately, space photography does not allow us to examine this place in detail, and we will turn to topographic maps and materials of the Marine Arctic Complex Expedition (MACE) of the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage named after. D. S. Likhachev under the leadership and scientific guidance of P. V. Boyarsky. In 1993, an expedition visited this place and left a brief description and, not least important, a visual plan.
The topographic map shows that a winter road leads to Pankovo from the south from Gribovaya Bay from the ruins marked there
Let's turn to the text of the description of this object. I was too lazy to retype the text, so I present it here in scanned form. Here the first major inconsistency appears. According to the description, the control point is located 200-300 m from the shore of the bay of the Plutovka River flowing into Gribovaya Bay. This place is marked on the topographic map as ruins, but by no means as Pankovo.
Read on and look at the map. I have a strong feeling that this is not describing the village of Pankovo, but the ruins marked on the map. Unfortunately, in space photography, the resolution of this area allows us only to guess the presence of some ruins there, similar to stone houses.
Wikimapia comes to the rescue. There is nothing noted in it at the site of the ruins, but the article about the village of Pankovo contains interesting photographs.
Bingo! This is exactly what we need. An aerial photograph from around 2013 allows us to understand what is located in the area of the “ruins” on the shore of Gribovaya Bay. Apparently, someone attached the photos to a slightly different place.
Let us pay attention to the plan presented in the expedition materials
On the plan, we are most interested in two bunkers, one of which has an observation window for monitoring the airborne nuclear explosions taking place approximately 90 km to the north (battlefield).
the presence of the seashore on the plan once again indicates that the object in question is located at the point marked as “ruins” and not as Pankovo.
The name of the plan differs from how this object is given in the text description (Automation Command Post or First Control Panel of the Landfill?). I attribute this to the negligence of the performers who were too lazy to correct the obviously working title of the plan.
And yet, I noticed that the buildings of the village are oriented towards the nuclear explosion, slightly shielded from it by the elevation of the relief, but how then to observe the explosion? It's simple - it's an air explosion.
We read further the description of the village in the expedition materials and, despite a fairly good description, we immediately find another misunderstanding. It follows from the text that the special part of the village is located in its extreme west, while from the plan it follows that in the south. Further, when comparing the plan and description, we understand that the error in orientation is not isolated, but systematic and amounts to exactly 90 degrees. I think that this was a mistake by the compiler of the text, who wrote it according to plan and did not pay attention to the fact that the arrow to the north does not point upward, as is customary, but to the right;-) And so everything is more or less normal.
This is what the equipment building, a concrete bunker with an observation window and three masts sticking out next to it, looks like in a photo from the materials of the 1993 expedition. The photo quality is poor...
Entrance to a concrete bunker. Compare this photo with the photo featured on the screensaver, taken no later than 2015. They differ in detail, most likely this is an eastern bunker without an observation window. I can assume that the right door leads to the room with the FVU.
Photo of the unnamed village "ruins" taken no later than 2015 from a helicopter. Upon closer inspection, both bunkers and at least one mast are visible. Other buildings also comply with the plan. The two-story residential building has a good view. In the distance you can see a block of aviation post buildings.
That's so beautiful. now there is no doubt that we have bound the object correctly
But the photos in Wikimapia are not linked correctly, nevertheless they are informative. Here is a helicopter landing on the helipad near the block of buildings of the aviation post
Block of aviation post buildings
Our two bunkers. In the background is the equipment room building. It looks like surveyors are working. What are they preparing for?
Exactly surveyors
Something like that. I will introduce you to other unique fortifications next time
Materials used:
1. Proceedings of the Marine Arctic Complex Expedition. Vol. IV. New Earth. Volume 3. 1993. M., 1994. S. 83, 84, 104, 105.
2. Wikimapia.
What is the basis for the Ministry of Defense’s confidence that the country is “reliably protected from all missile-hazardous directions”? This year 2014 in Russia has been declared the year of culture. But this is in the country as a whole. And in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, apparently, 2014 is the year of air defense. The result was a sensation. According to Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Yuri Borisov, today our country is “reliably protected from all missile-hazardous directions.”
If this is true, we could not boast of anything like this, at least for the last quarter of a century. And then this is the most serious achievement of our defense department. Especially considering the fact that all modern wars begin (and sometimes end victoriously) with just one aerospace operation. Even if it lasts for weeks or months.
An aerospace operation is when suddenly thousands of precision weapons fall on military and industrial facilities, control posts, bridges, dams, airfields, railway stations, ports, the largest factories and factories. Not necessarily in nuclear equipment - in conventional equipment. But capable of getting not only, say, into some factory management building, but through a window into the decanter on the table of the director’s office. Even if air defense forces manage to shoot down half of this predatory flock, the remaining air attack weapons can still instantly plunge almost any country into darkness, cold and hunger. And in a matter of hours, deprive her of any opportunity to wage any war other than a partisan one.
The whole world has seen how this happens in practice using the examples of Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. And if Deputy Defense Minister Borisov is not wishful thinking, Russia is now among those few states against which it makes no sense to even plan an aerospace operation. But isn’t Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov being disingenuous? How did such a magical strengthening of Russian air borders happen in a matter of years?
From the solid “black holes” that were obvious to everyone until recently to a downright reinforced concrete fortress? Let's listen further to the deputy minister. " Today we have practically no unprotected territories. Now we have a continuous information field
", he reported. A senior official of the Ministry of Defense did not decipher this thesis, but it is already clear what he means. The gigantic efforts that Russia has been making over the past two to three years to restore the military infrastructure of the air defense forces are gradually paying off. First of all, in the Arctic. After all, since 1993, it was the Arctic coast that was our biggest “black hole”, through which anyone and on anything could fly into the country undetected. It was in the Soviet years that we had such a radar field beyond the Arctic Circle that a mouse couldn’t get past it
The division's forward radar stations were scattered across islands and capes forever frozen in ice so remote that helicopters and airplanes did not fly there every week. Graham Bell Island (Franz Josef Land archipelago), Nagurskoye (at the northern tip of the Alexandra Land island of the Franz Josef Land archipelago), Bely Island in the Kara Sea, Maressala (Yamal Peninsula), Ust-Kara (Nenets Autonomous Okrug). It was first milestone radar cover.
Second milestone- RTV companies at Cape Zhelaniya (Novaya Zemlya), in Russkaya Gavan (Novaya Zemlya), at Cape Nikolai (Arkhangelsk region).
There was also third milestone. It was provided by units and units of the 10th Separate Air Defense Army deployed on the mainland of the Arctic coast of the USSR. No one could slip through this all-seeing electronic sieve unnoticed. But only until 1992. Then someone very smart in Moscow decided that the country could not afford polar garrisons in these wild lands. Why, if “new thinking” and beautiful “universal human values” were in honour?
Since January 1, 1993, by directive of the General Staff, our air defense troops left Graham Bell, Nagurskoye, Cape Zhelaniya, Russkaya Gavan and Cape Nikolai without a fight. Then the retreat continued and soon turned into a stampede from the Arctic.
They abandoned everything - stations, control points, houses, barracks, canteens. The country above the Arctic Circle went voluntarily blind for decades. Or she was deliberately blinded.
What has changed today? And today we are spending a lot of money to restore a continuous information field and return air defense troops and fighter aircraft to those parts. 6 billion rubles were allocated to Spetsstroy only for the restoration of radar stations and guidance points on the islands of the Severnaya Zemlya, Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land archipelagos. Some things have already been done. Since the beginning of October, air defense units have taken up experimental combat duty on Wrangel Island, Kotelny Island and on Cape Otto Schmidt.
In total, 10 positions for air target detection stations are now being practically rebuilt on the Arctic coast. This, of course, is significantly less than it was before the pogrom of the air defense in these parts in 1993. Well, technical progress does not stand still. Even in Russia.
In this sense, Russian air defense specialists pin great hopes on the recently created NPO "LEMZ" Dual-use route radar complex (TRLC DN), designed for reconnaissance and control of airspace. These smart machines are able to automatically monitor the sky around the clock for 15 years at a distance of up to 400 km and altitudes of up to 30 km.
Only those who have begun to join the air defense troops can see even further radar systems, capable of detecting any airborne objects at ranges and altitudes of more than 1000 km. Ten such radars will be installed this year. And the first “Sopka-2” has been on combat duty on Kotelny Island since the summer.
So it may very well be that there is no need to restore all the old Soviet garrisons in the Arctic Circle - now we can cope with it with fewer forces. And yet there are suspicions that Deputy Defense Minister Borisov was in a hurry with his victory report. Even according to the plan, the arrangement of the positions of new air defense stations in the Arctic should be completed by Spetsstroy only at the end of 2015. And everyone knows how plans are implemented in Russia.
It also takes time for the military to master new equipment and settle into those inhospitable places. Therefore, it is unlikely that the new system has already worked so effectively to report that the country is “reliably protected from all missile-hazardous directions.”
In addition, there are doubts of a more serious nature. Well, let’s say that in a year or two we will be able to timely detect combat aircraft or cruise missiles attacking us from the northern direction. What's next? Logically, we need to shoot them down next. With what? The Ministry of Defense and the General Staff have heard nothing about setting up new anti-aircraft missile regiments beyond the Arctic Circle.
Fighters? Yes, for them, as well as for the jumping of strategic bombers, 13 airfields are being recreated in the Far North. However, apparently, only one interceptor has been prepared for permanent deployment in the Arctic - in the village of Rogachevo on Novaya Zemlya. During the Soviet years, the 63rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, equipped with Su-27 fighters, was stationed there. Now, as announced by the Ministry of Defense, MiG-31s will be stationed on Novaya Zemlya. How many - regiment or squadron? - This is probably a military secret for now.
But neither a regiment nor a squadron of even the most remarkable MiGs is able to cover all 22.5 thousand kilometers of the Arctic coast of Russia. During the threatened period, transfer reinforcements in the form of new aviation fighter regiments to the remaining 12 airfields? This is if we have time.
Well, that is, by that time we will most likely discover the enemy in time. What we will do next is a big question. And where is the reliable protection “from all missile-hazardous directions”, Comrade Borisov?
The Russian Ministry of Defense plans to strengthen control over the Arctic air border.
Russia owns almost half of the coast of the Arctic Ocean; up to 80% of Russian oil reserves and 90% of gas and coal reserves are located in our Arctic sector. The Shtokman field alone, which is being developed by transnational companies together with Russia, has 3,800 billion m3 of gas (for comparison, this is the gas consumption of France over 80 years). In the American sector, oil reserves in the Chukchi Sea alone are estimated at 15 million barrels, and gas reserves at over 2,000 billion cubic meters; large hydrocarbon reserves are also located in the Canadian sector.
In addition to its resource potential, the Arctic has important military and strategic significance. Here are convenient positions for placing elements of strategic deterrence systems, for launching ballistic missiles and for positioning air defense and missile defense systems. Thanks to global warming and the gradual decrease in ice cover, navies are able to operate in this region for large parts of the year.
President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Leonid Ivashov emphasized the importance of the participation of Russian aviation in the protection of oil production facilities on the Arctic shelf. The expert notes that countries vying for northern oil are investing extensive resources in ensuring a military presence in the region, while Russian infrastructure is in disrepair.
The reduction in the number of military personnel and civilian personnel on Novaya Zemlya begins in the late 80s. With the cessation of nuclear weapons testing, the number of personnel servicing the test site is sharply declining. The number of military personnel at air defense points begins to be reduced.
In 1990-1993 The forces of the country's Air Defense Forces on the Arctic islands are being eliminated. The liquidation begins with the 3rd Radio Engineering Regiment, whose units, as mentioned above, were located along the entire western coast of Novaya Zemlya and on Franz Josef Land. Personnel are withdrawn to the mainland, materiel is left at distant points, and partially removed from nearby points. Some points (Cape Menshikov, Guba Chernaya) are transferred to the Federal Border Service, but then they are disbanded.
The 406th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment, whose headquarters were located in Rogachevo, is being liquidated. The 641st Fighter Aviation Regiment is transferred from Rogachevo to the Afrikanda airfield (Murmansk region, Polyarnye Zori) and at the beginning of the 21st century. disbanded. The activities of the 4th (Novaya Zemlya) air defense division are terminated.
An arctic fox collar against the backdrop of crumbling plaster is the reality of modern Belushka. In recent years, however, the village has begun cosmetic renovations: houses are sheathed with colored plastic.
At the same time, the naval points located on the western coast of Novaya Zemlya, as well as parts of the Strategic Missile Forces, are abolished.
The existence of the village of Rogachevo also ceases. Almost all the buildings and structures of the village are now ruins. The airfield is served by a duty shift that comes from Belushya Guba. Now, as far as can be judged from open sources, all points on Novaya Zemlya have been eliminated. The population is concentrated in the village of Belushya Guba (2.8 thousand people). In addition, the existence of the village is supported. Northern, but the number of personnel here is insignificant. In general, we can now consider that Novaya Zemlya has “shrinked” to the limits of Belushya Guba.
In 1998, the air defense of the Arctic was practically eliminated and the northern border of Russia was opened to enemy aircraft. 
If until the end of the 80s different types of armed forces “coexisted” here, now the Central Training Ground of Russia has become the sole and absolute owner of Novaya Zemlya. The test site received this name on February 27, 1992, according to presidential decree No. 194 “On the test site on Novaya Zemlya.” The decree left the Central training ground under the jurisdiction of the Navy. In 1998, the test site was transferred to the jurisdiction of the 12th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense (“Nuclear Technical Support and Security”).
The Ministry of Defense first announced the need to build up military potential on the Northern Sea Route in March 2011. A new formation for action in the Arctic was to be formed on the basis of the 200th motorized rifle brigade, which is stationed in Pechenga. A few months later, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced that not one, but two army Arctic brigades would be created to protect Russian interests in the Arctic. He named Murmansk and Arkhangelsk as possible locations for their deployment. The head of the defense department emphasized that when creating new units, the military will take into account the experience of the armed forces of Norway, Finland and Sweden.
— Radar stations allow us to constantly monitor how our air borders are covered. In addition, there will be flight control centers - not for civilian, but for military aviation. If it is important for a civilian dispatcher to build a flow along the route, then the task of the gunner officer is to detect the target and identify it. The command post, where the whole picture of all air borders is visible, is located in the Moscow region; all radar and missile attack warning radar data is received there,” said Pyotr Deinekin.
Former Air Force Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Mikhailov explained that aviation guidance points actually duplicate the role of command posts in remote areas.
— There are no command posts there, aviation guidance points are used. There is no infantry in the ice, it is difficult for ships to navigate, aviation is needed there,” the interlocutor emphasized.
Now there is a border post on Sredny Island and the only airfield in the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. There is a border post “Nagurskaya” on the island of Alexandra Land. On the coast of Chukotka at Cape Schmidt and on Wrangel Island in the 1960s, runways for reserve military airfields were created. In the village of Rogachevo on the South Island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago there is an operating Amderma-2 airfield - as reported in 2013, an air group of MiG-31 interceptors will be located there.
During Soviet times, air defense and combat aviation control points were located along the entire northern coast of the country, but in the 1990s they were abandoned by the military and abandoned.
Direct strategic routes of the US Air Force to Russia pass through the Arctic. We carried out 340 raids to the shores of America. Therefore, our air defense radar posts and fighters were located along the northern coast - on the islands of Tiksi, Vorkuta, Graham Bell, Alexandra Land, Sredniy, in Olenya Bay of the Kola Peninsula and on Cape Schmidt. After the collapse of the USSR, all this was abandoned - and we lost the opportunity to observe air targets.
Without aviation we will not cover the Arctic direction. In the 1990s, we left the Arctic, abandoning our airfields and radar network. The northern direction has become the most vulnerable. Now we are reaching the shelf, there are oil platforms there, and no one is protecting them. At the same time, the United States has divided the Arctic into areas of responsibility of its military commands; it has a multi-billion dollar program to create military equipment for Arctic conditions. There is also the Arctic Council, which includes the combined military forces of Canada, Denmark, Norway, and England.
The deployment of new Arctic brigades of the Ministry of Defense will take place as part of the implementation of the “Fundamentals of the State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Arctic for the period until 2020 and beyond” adopted by the Security Council of the Russian Federation. Within the framework of this document, in the coming years, groupings of forces will be created in the northern regions of the country that will be able to ensure the military security of the Arctic region in various military-political situations.
Within a year, Spetsstroy will complete the construction of air defense posts and combat aviation guidance points on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. As the newspaper notes, the restoration of abandoned aviation infrastructure will cost 6 billion rubles. According to Izvestia, Spetsstroy will complete the restoration of the air defense infrastructure on the Arctic islands by October 2015. Such information is contained in the documents of the project executor - FSUE "Spetsstroyengineering" at "Spetsstroy of Russia".
Spetsstroy confirmed the construction of five stationary radar facilities and aviation guidance points - on the Sredny Island of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, the Alexandra Land island of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, Wrangel Island and Cape Schmidt in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and in the village of Rogachevo on the Southern Island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Spetsstroy of Russia will construct facilities in the listed regions. There are also plans to build similar facilities in other regions.
The Ministry of Defense also confirmed plans to restore the flight support system in the Arctic zone. Now there is a border post on Sredny Island and the only airfield in the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. There is a border post "Nagurskaya" on the island of Alexandra Land. On the coast of Chukotka at Cape Schmidt and on Wrangel Island in the 1960s, runways for reserve military airfields were created. In the village of Rogachevo on the South Island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, there is an active Amderma-2 airfield (as reported in 2013, an air group of MiG-31 interceptors was located there).
Spetsstroy plans to restore the air defense infrastructure on the Arctic islands by October 2015. Such information is contained in the documents of the project executor - FSUE Spetsstroyengineering under Spetsstroy of Russia. Spetsstroy confirmed the construction of five stationary radar facilities and aviation guidance points - on the Sredny Island of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, the Alexandra Land island of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, Wrangel Island and Cape Schmidt in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and in the village of Rogacheva on the Southern Island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.
The Ministry of Defense also confirmed plans to restore the flight support system in the Arctic zone. An air defense radar and a dispatch center will appear at each of the five specified points. Information about movement in the airspace over the Arctic coast will be transmitted to the air defense command post in the Moscow region.
Related articles:
More on the topic:
from the 50s to the early 90s of the 20th century, it was considered one of the theaters of military operations. The shortest route between the USSR and the USA ran through the North Pole. In this regard, units of the country's air defense forces were deployed on the coast and islands of the Arctic Ocean. In terms of the level of Arctic development, these troops surpassed all other departments involved in the development of the North. But with the end of the Cold War, the vast majority of these units were withdrawn from the Arctic and disbanded. However, their experience may be interesting from both a historical and practical point of view, since in recent years Russia’s military presence in the Arctic has been actively restored.
After World War II, in which the Arctic was one of the theaters of military operations, interest in its military development increased sharply. The Arctic was one of those regions of the world where the Cold War was very active. The existence of defensive structures on the islands and coasts of the Arctic Ocean in Soviet times was a military secret, but in post-Soviet times, military facilities here were declassified and, in the vast majority of cases, abolished. But the impact of military development on the development of the Arctic region was very significant, and in some places remains so today. However, neither the history nor the geography of this development, for obvious reasons, received wide coverage in the open press. Recently, the media have often written about the return of our Armed Forces to the Arctic, the creation of new airfields, radar stations and the restoration of the radar system over the Arctic Ocean. Here we can only remember that the new is the well-forgotten old, and the current “assertion” of Russia in the Arctic represents only a partial restoration of the infrastructure created during the Soviet era.
The most interesting thing from a geographical point of view was the participation of the country's Air Defense Forces in the process of military development of the Arctic. Sometimes in the “mass media” these troops are called “air defense troops of the USSR”, but this is a wrong name, since the air defense of the USSR also included military air defense (air defense units that performed tasks for the direct protection of units and subunits of other branches of the Armed Forces and branches of the armed forces, or “battlefield air defense”). The country's Air Defense Forces as a branch of the Armed Forces included three types of troops - radio technical troops (RTV), fighter aviation (IA) and anti-aircraft missile forces (ZRV).
Radio technical troops (RTV) consist of relatively small units scattered over large territories. Their task was only to see, they could not act. Figuratively speaking, RTV, especially on distant frontiers, were the “guardians of Doomsday.” Their combat mission essentially boiled down to seeing on the radar indicators (radar stations) enemy air armadas moving in battle formations, and having time to “transmit via communications” “It has begun!” The military action plans did not provide for the rescue of personnel from remote RTV units.
A. Shramchenko, commander of the radio technical troops of the Air Force (after the unification of the Air Force and Air Defense, their radio technical troops were also united), noted back in 2001: “Until recently, the RTV had units stationed on the Arctic islands: in particular, on (about. Graham-Bell), on the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya (Cape Zhelaniya), on Vize Island in the Kara Sea, on the islands of Severnaya Zemlya, Vaygach, Wrangel, Dikson. Simply surviving in such conditions is already a feat, and the personnel were on combat duty and provided the air defense forces on duty with radar information. These pages of history are still waiting to be described.”
The fighter aviation units were large in number of personnel; they had a powerful infrastructure, the basis of which was airfields. The airfields where fighter aviation regiments (IAP) were based were naturally under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, but they were often used as dual-based airfields, i.e. were also used by civil aviation (in Soviet times - by aviation of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, MGA). Such an airfield was always located in one or another populated area or in close proximity to it. The airfield was “overgrown” with a variety of infrastructure (transport, social, etc.), since in the Arctic conditions it inevitably became the main transport hub of the adjacent territory, often measured in tens and even hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. As a result, the liquidation of such airfields significantly changed the trajectory of development of those settlements where they were located - most often these settlements fell into disrepair, especially if the IAP was a “city-forming enterprise” here. As an example, we can cite the village. (Nenets Autonomous Okrug).
In terms of their impact on the surrounding territories, anti-aircraft missile forces occupied an intermediate position between IA and RTV. Anti-aircraft missile regiments (ZRP) consisted of divisions located at a significant distance from the objects they covered. But this distance was measured not in hundreds or even thousands of kilometers, as in the case of RTV, but in the best case, in tens. But the ZRP did not have such a high level of territorial concentration as in the case of the IAP. Air defense missile systems in the Arctic were used to cover strategic facilities located there. The territories adjacent to the Kola Bay (Murmansk, Severomorsk, Polyarny, etc.) had the highest concentration of anti-aircraft missile units in the Arctic. In the Arctic conditions, air defense missile systems were mainly located in the same place as fighter aircraft units, so the consequences of their liquidation are difficult to separate from the consequences of the liquidation of IAP.
The sharp reduction of the country's air defense troops in the 90s led to the fact that a significant part of them simply ceased to exist, and the radio engineering troops "suffered" the most. “The following data allow us to judge the reduction in the groupings of the Air Defense Forces: from 1992 to 1996, the number of anti-aircraft missile regiments decreased from 151 to 84, anti-aircraft missile brigades - from 56 to 1, fighter air regiments - from 67 to 27, radio engineering regiments and centers - from 71 up to 16".
The country's air defense troops began to deploy in the Arctic in the mid-50s. This was primarily due to the development of atomic weapons. The main means of delivering atomic weapons until the late 60s and early 70s was strategic aviation. The shortest route between the two superpowers of that time, the USSR and the USA, passed through the Arctic Ocean. And if until the mid-50s, air defense units and formations were located mainly in large cities, in the territories adjacent to them and along the main transport routes of the USSR, then from that time their partial redeployment to distant borders, including the Arctic, began.
From that same time, the organizational structure of the country's Air Defense Forces took shape, which lasted until the 90s. Units and formations of air defense troops were built according to the “geographical” principle. The upper level of this structure consisted of the Moscow Air Defense District and individual armies (OA). The headquarters of the OA were located in large cities. The north of the European part of the USSR was covered by units and units of the 10th OA with headquarters in Arkhangelsk. The sky over the Arctic part of Siberia was “closed” by the 14th OA (headquarters in Novosibirsk). The Far Eastern part of the Arctic, like the Far East in general, was defended by the 11th Air Defense Army (headquarters in Khabarovsk).
Air defense armies consisted of divisions and corps. Within the Arctic, the 10th Air Defense Army included the 21st Corps (headquarters in Severomorsk) and the 4th Division (headquarters in Belushaya Guba on Novaya Zemlya). The 22nd Air Defense Division (headquarters in Norilsk) belonged to the 14th OA. To the 11th Air Defense Army - the 25th Division (headquarters in the village of Ugolnye Kopi, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug). The divisions included radio technical brigades (RTBR) and regiments (RTP), IAP and ZRP.
The radio engineering units had the most complex territorial structure. For example, military unit 03161 (RTP, headquarters in the village of Tiksi; subordinate to the Norilsk Division) included “points” in Nizhneyansk, Kigilyakh, Chokurdakh, Tempe (New Siberian Islands), Taymylyr, Dzhardzhan. The western neighbor of this regiment was stationed on Dikson (169th Radio Engineering Brigade, military unit 03177) with “points” on Taimyr and islands in the Kara Sea (for example, a separate radar company (orlr) on Vize Island and two “points” on Severnaya Zemlya ). To the east of the regiment in Tiksi there were units of the 129th RTBR, which was part of the 25th Air Defense Division with headquarters in the same place as the division headquarters - in the village of Ugolnye Kopi (Anadyr airport). The “points” of this brigade were located along the entire coast of Chukotka and on Wrangel Island (Ushakovskoye).
The sky over the north of Western Siberia was divided by two radio technical air defense regiments - the 11th RTP (headquarters in Vorkuta, part of the 4th division of the 10th Air Defense Army) (“points” on the Kolguev and Bely islands, the coast of Yamal) and 84 1st RTP (headquarters in Novy Urengoy, part of the 22nd Division of the 14th Air Defense Army). The 3rd Radio Engineering Regiment was stationed on Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land, “covering” the sky over the east of the European part of the Union and the Urals. The headquarters of this regiment was located in the same place as the headquarters of the 4th Air Defense Division, in the village of Belushya Guba on Novaya Zemlya, and the “points” were located on Cape Menshikov, in Chernaya Bay, on Cape Lilye, in the village of Rogachevo (the only airfield on Novaya Zemlya), Pankova Zemlya Peninsula, Cape Nikolai, in Russian Harbor, on Cape Zhelaniya, as well as on Alexandra Land (archipelago) and on Victoria Island, located between Franz Josef Land and Spitsbergen.
To the west of Novaya Zemlya there were radio engineering units that were part of the 21st Air Defense Corps with headquarters in Severomorsk. The Kola Peninsula is the most developed and saturated part of the Arctic region with military facilities, therefore there were many air defense units covering these facilities. The radio technical troops here were represented by the 5th radio technical brigade with headquarters in Severomorsk. However, on the Kola Peninsula, radio-technical air defense units had no “system-forming” importance, since they were literally “lost” there among a large number of units and forces of other types of Armed Forces and branches of the armed forces. On the Kola Peninsula, units of the RTV, as well as other branches of air defense troops, still stand today, unlike all the divisions and units mentioned earlier. Thus, the 21st Air Defense Corps has now been transformed into the 1st Aerospace Defense Corps (Military Space Defense). As a result, detailed information about them in the public domain is extremely limited.
The Kola Peninsula is also the most populated with airfields where fighter aviation regiments (IAP) were stationed. One of these airfields was the Afrikanda airfield near the town of Polyarnye Zori. In 2001, the airfield was liquidated, the village near it was abandoned and is gradually being destroyed. The Kilp-Yavr airfield, 60 km from Murmansk, was also used; currently fighter aircraft have also been withdrawn from there and transferred to the Besovets airfield (Republic of Karelia). Another fighter aviation airfield on the Kola Peninsula is Monchegorsk, which is still in use today.
Between the Kola Peninsula and Novaya Zemlya, fighter aviation regiments were located south of the Arctic (Arkhangelsk, Kotlas). On Novaya Zemlya at the Rogachevo airfield (in Soviet times this airport was secret, its official name was and is “Amderma-2”) there was the 641st Fighter Aviation Regiment.
In 1993, this regiment was transferred to the already mentioned Afrikanda airfield and merged with the IAP stationed there, which was also subsequently liquidated. Currently, the Rogachevo airfield is used for communication with the Central training ground of the Russian Federation, located on Novaya Zemlya. In 2012, the idea was put forward to station the MiG-31 at the Rogachevo airfield, but in 2013 this idea was rejected. From the not very clear explanations of the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and the Air Force command, it was possible to understand that the main reason for the failure was the poor condition of the airfield infrastructure. This airfield is now served by a duty shift coming from the village of Belushya Guba, located 13 km away, since the village. Rogachevo is completely abandoned.
In November 2013, at a meeting held by Russian President V.V. At a Putin meeting on air force issues, Air Force Commander V. Bondarev defined the prospects for the military development of Arctic airfields, including Rogachevo, as follows: “In the Arctic zone, we plan to occupy Rogachevo and Nagurskoye. Rogachevo is now operating, the only thing we plan to expand its capabilities is to extend the strip by another 500 meters. Nagurskoye is on. Next is the Temp airfield and on Schmidt Island. Next, we also want to bring the airfields in the Arctic zone - Alykel, Tiksi - up to standard conditions and use them as airfields for long-range aviation.” The interest in Nagurskaya, however, is not entirely clear - its runway is completely unsuitable for military purposes. In Soviet times, the main airfield of Franz Josef Land was where, together with a separate radar company, the air commandant's office was located, which maintained this airfield in good condition. Even heavy aircraft could take off and land on it, but now this airfield does not exist.
