MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/. The crews of deck-based MiG-29K fighters have gone on experimental combat duty on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic for the first time, the Northern Fleet’s press office reported on Friday.

"The replacement of the flight personnel and MiG-31BM fighters of a seperate composite aviation regiment took place at the Northern Fleet’s Rogachyovo airfield. They were replaced for the first time by pilots of deck-based MiG-29K fighters of the 100th shipborne aviation regiment of the Northern Fleet’s Air Force and Air Defense Army," the press office said in a statement.

The experimental combat duty by pilots of the Northern Fleet’s Air Force and Air Defense Army on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago expands the area of employing the Fleet’s fighter aviation in the Arctic and increases the zone of controlled airspace over the Northern Sea Route, the statement says.

An anti-aircraft missile regiment of the Northern Fleet’s 45th Air Force and Air Defense Army armed with S-400 ‘Triumf’ surface-to-air missile systems assumed combat duty on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago several years ago.

The 100th shipborne aviation regiment is outfitted with generation 4+ MiG-29K fighters. The regiment’s pilots participated in the long-distance deployment of the Northern Fleet’s carrier group in the Mediterranean Sea led by Russia’s heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov.