Russian troops guarding a military base in the Arctic region 2015.
On March 13, 2015 Russian Military transport pilots are preparing for a unique operation aimed to search an area for the polar station “Barneo-2015”.
This according to information from the Russian Ministry of Defense website.
“Barneo” is a top secret Russian research station on the North Pole…”
The station functions in the Arctic from 1 to 1.5 months, when the polar day comes, there is no a strong wind, the temperature is not below 30 degrees…
“The IL-76 crew of the military transport aviation of the Russian Air Force has finished preparations for the flight within the opening of the polar station “Barneo-2015”. Roughly one third of the crew has ever performed this kind of mission before.
The Il-76 crew also will deliver upwards to 50 tons of a cargo: generators, the food, polar tents, a tractor, fuel for helicopters, the other equipment and 15 persons of members of the polar expedition as well…
The crew has been enabled to carry out a unique operation aimed to search area for the polar station “Barneo-2015” and to prepare an airfield on a drift-ice in the Arctic.
A very high risk operation as you can imagine.
Drift ice is any sea ice other than fast ice, the latter being attached (“fastened”) to the shoreline or other fixed objects (shoals, grounded icebergs, etc.). Drift ice is carried along by winds and sea currents, hence its name. When drift ice is driven together into a large single mass (>70% coverage), it is called pack ice.
The flight crew has already performed flights over the featureless terrain with the use of inertial navigator, flights at altitudes of about 300 meters and dropping of PGS-500 platforms which weigh in excess of 500 kg.
In the course of the next week the crew of the IL-76 aircraft will carry out a continuous flight from the Tver Region to the Murmansk Region which will be the starting point of their way to the North Pole.
In February 2015 elements of the 200th Russian motorized Rifle Brigade conducted a live fire artic warfare training under real world conditions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLK4cO72v6w