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Russian Defense Ministry to build, reconstruct 10 Arctic airfields — media

According to Izvestia daily, more than 100 tons of material resources for more than 150 facilities - lighthouses, islands, military units are planned to be delivered to remote military garrisons

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. The Russian Defense Ministry intends to build and reconstruct in the Arctic 10 airfields in order to strengthen Russia's presence in the northern latitudes, the Izvestia daily reported on Monday

"Russia’s Federal Agency for Special Construction (Spetsstroy) is building military infrastructure facilities on six islands in the Arctic", the newspaper quotes a ministry official. According to him, more than 100 tons of material resources for more than 150 facilities - lighthouses, islands, military units are planned to be delivered to remote military garrisons. "The Northern delivery is planned for the favorable weather conditions period in order to safely ship cargoes to the most difficult in terms of delivery and unloading places", the Izvestia source said.

In addition to the materiel supply, more than 190 tons of construction and inert materials - aerodrome plates, cement, metal, pipes, fittings and equipment will be delivered to the Arctic for building the facilities. The delivery to the Arctic zone of all the necessary supplies goes together with the garbage removal.

The Russian Defense Ministry will continue to deploy its units in the Arctic until 2020. Currently, the development of infrastructure facilities for more than 20,000 servicemen, their families and civilians working at the Defense Ministry facilities at military units and garrisons of the Far North, Siberia and the Far East is underway.

In late 2015, Russia completed equipping its six military bases in the Arctic. "According to the General Staff’s execution documents, the work for the deployment and equipment of six military bases on the Arctic islands and in the polar part of mainland Russia is completed," a high-ranking source in the Russian army’s General Staff said. According to the source, the bases were deployed on the islands of Kotelny (New Siberian Islands), Alexandra Land (part of the Franz-Joseph Land archipelago), Sredny (Severnaya Zemlya), as well as in the Rogachevo settlement (Novaya Zemlya), on Cape Schmidt and Wrangel Island (part of the Chukotka autonomous area). The first priority infrastructure facilities, including the administrative and housing complexes - closed-cycle military towns, aerodromes, combat positions of the Arctic units were built.