MURMANSK, June 8. /TASS/. The Northern Fleet’s anti-submarine warfare aircraft will hunt a notional enemy’s submarines in the Barents Sea during drills for defending the country’s Arctic frontiers, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.

"The anti-submarine warfare aircraft will perform several flights from coastal airfields while deck-based Ka-27 anti-subsurface helicopters will cope with the tasks of searching for adversary submarines, taking off from the Severomorsk large anti-submarine warfare ship, the press office said in a statement.

The anti-submarine warfare aircraft of the Northern Fleet’s Air Force and Air Defense Army are engaged in specific stages of its multiservice force drills for defending the Russian Arctic frontiers that are running in the force-on-force format, the statement says.

Three groups of anti-submarine warfare ships have been deployed to the sea. They have launched operations to hunt a hypothetical enemy’s submarines, using sonars, while the crews of the Northern Fleet’s submarines have been assigned the tasks of stealthily switching to a torpedo attack and striking the notional enemy’s naval task force, the press office specified.

"In the course of these maneuvers, the crews of anti-submarine warfare ships and subs are learning to operate in complex conditions maximally close to a present-day naval battle," the statement reads.

Various stages of the Northern Fleet’s multiservice maneuvers running in the force-on-force format under the direction of Fleet Deputy Commander Vice Admiral Oleg Golubev involve over 20 surface ships and submarines, about 10 fixed-and rotary-wing aircraft, and coastal defense troops.