MOSCOW, November 15. /TASS/. Radio-technical troops of Russia’s Eastern Military District employed the Sopka-2 radar on Wrangel Island to detect airspace intruders in Arctic drills, the District’s press office reported on Friday.
"The drills involved the personnel of the radar unit stationed on Wrangel Island. The servicemen used the advanced Sopka-2 air-route radar station to detect and identify targets," the press office said in a statement.
The radio-technical troops detected all the targets during the drills. The crews of new Mi-8AMTSh-VA helicopters that had recently assumed combat duty in the Arctic simulated the airspace intruders during the drills. The troops tracked the targets after their identification and transmitted the relevant data to the command post of the Eastern Military District, the statement says.
According to the data of Russia’s Defense Ministry, the Sopka-2 radar entered service on Wrangel Island in 2016. The radar is capable of identifying targets flying as part of a group. The radar is equipped with a protective antenna cupola and is capable of operating in winds of up to 40 meters per second and at temperatures of up to minus 40 degrees Celsius. The radar detects air targets round the clock and determines their state affiliation at ranges of up to 400 km and at altitudes of up to 30 km.
Arctic Mi-8AMTSh-VA helicopters are part of the air group that makes flights to Cape Schmidt and Wrangel Island. The helicopters are based at the Ugolniye Kopi aerodrome in Anadyr (the Chukotka Peninsula). The helicopters have been on round-the-year combat duty since early November.
The Mi-8AMTSh-VA choppers will replace Mi-8AMTSh ‘Terminator’ transport and attack rotorcraft, which have been performing missions for cargo and personnel delivery in the Arctic for several years now.