MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/. The teams of the Pacific Fleet’s Bastion coastal defense missile systems have assumed combat alert on the Island of Matua on the Kuril Islands, the Pacific Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.

"The teams of the Pacific Fleet’s Bastion coastal defense missile systems have deployed for the first time and assumed combat alert on the Island of Matua. The Pacific Fleet’s missile personnel will be on round-the-clock watch on this remote island in the central part of the Kuril Ridge to control the adjacent waters and straits," the statement says.

The military hardware, personnel and equipment were delivered to the island area by large amphibious assault ships of the Pacific Fleet’s Primorye All-Arms Force Flotilla, the press office said.

"The Fleet’s logistics forces have deployed an autonomous cantonment on the island’s territory where they have completed works for providing premises designated for round-the-clock combat alert and the personnel’s living," the press office explained.

The Fleet’s logistics forces have also set up technical posts, deployed military hardware and equipment depots and equipped approaches to launching sites for the purposes of the materiel’s operation and maintenance, it added.

"The personnel have commenced combat alert and planned combat training measures," the statement says.

The Bastion coastal defense system with the standardized Yakhont (Oniks) supersonic homing anti-ship cruise missile is designated to strike various types of surface ships operating as part of amphibious assault formations, convoys, surface action and carrier strike groups, and also sole ships and radar-contrast land targets under intensive fire and electronic counter-measures.