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Military drills

Russian submarines to practice surfacing in Arctic ice — Navy chief

The Arctic is one of the main theaters of operation for Russian submarine forces. The region remains not only a climatic zone but also a training range and a home place, Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov said

MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/. The Russian Navy will continue conducting drills in the Arctic and is set to practice submarine surfacing in the North Pole, Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov said on Friday.

"The drills in the Arctic region involving submarines and other naval forces will certainly be conducted. We will practice the surfacing of submarines in ice openings in polar areas, rescue operations employing naval aircraft, military-technical and scientific experiments," the Navy chief in an interview with the Defense Ministry’s Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper on the eve of Submariner Day celebrated in Russia on March 19.

The Russian Navy has a lot of plans on this score, he added.

The Arctic is one of the main theaters of operation for Russian submarine forces. The region remains not only a climatic zone but also a training range and a home place, Yevmenov said.

"Today the under-ice deployment and the employment of weapons in the ice require great skills possessed by the crews of submarines from a very limited number of countries. And we are the best among them," the admiral stressed.

The Northern Fleet’s press office reported in January that the crews of strategic nuclear-powered submarines would pay special attention to operations under the ice this year, undergoing relevant theoretical and practical training. Last year, the nuclear-powered submarines Omsk and Novosibirsk together with the Pacific Fleet’s Bastion coastal defense missile system conducted launches of Granit and Oniks cruise missiles against complex sea targets during the Umka 2022 comprehensive Arctic expedition.

In 2021, the crews of the Northern Fleet’s three nuclear-powered submarines simultaneously surfaced for the first time ever from under the ice near the northern islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago at a distance of 300 meters from each other. Russian President Vladimir Putin handed down an order at the time to continue conducting comprehensive Arctic expeditions, exploring and developing the Extreme North to ensure the country’s military security.

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Military drills

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