Arctic rush

kvs wrote:

Tsavo Lion wrote:Russia’s Two-Pronged Approach to Militarizing the Arctic

Inflammatory and alarmist language.    Russia is securing its sovereignty and rights in the Arctic.   No NATO MSM ever calls the US Naval operations in the South China
Sea as "militarizing the South China Sea" or similar BS.     Putting up and restoring military bases on its own territory is the definition of defense.   The term
"militarizing" insinuates build up of forces for aggressive action.    The clowns who are planning aggressive military action in the Arctic are the USA and its minions.

On the desolate shores on peninsula Gydan comes the terminal that is to serve one of Russia’s biggest ever Arctic projects.

Small town Dikson gets key role in big Arctic plan

The about 550 people living in the outpost on the Kara Sea coast could soon face big change as the federal government early this month decided to give the local seaport international status.
Behind the decision lies a plan to boost shipments on the Northern Sea Route, the government informs. Foreign vessels will now be allowed to sail into local ports to load and unload goods.

Dikson is located on the northwestern coast of great peninsula Taymyr, near the major Taybass coal deposits owned by company Vostok Coal.

The company controlled by powerful businessman Dmitry Bosov intends to ship out as much as 20 million tons of coal per year from the area by 2024. Two major fields are under development and commercial production due to start in 2019, the company says.

A third major license area was obtained earlier this year.
Two major new seaports are to be built. The Chayka and Sever terminals will be able to handle combined quantities of more than 30 million tons of coal per year. Despite the shrinking international demands, all of the Taybass coal is aimed at export.

The new terminals will also be able to handle coal from the Syradasayskoye field, the federal government argues. The Syradasayskoye is located further south in the peninsula. It is controlled by company Severnaya Zvezda and planned developed with the building of a 120 long new railway. The field can produce up to 10 million tons of coal per year, TASS reported.

And the future of Dikson is more than coal. It is also oil.

Company Neftegazholding intends to build a more than 400 km long pipeline from its Payakha fields to the Sever terminal. Annual shipments from site will ultimately amount to 26 million tons, the company says.

The grand development plans in Taymyr come as federal authorities is grappling with President Putin’s order to boost annual shipments on the Northern Sea Route to 80 million tons by year 2024.

«Thanks to the development of these investment projects the increase in shipments on the Northern Sea Route will be provided,» the government decree reads.

If the ambitious targets for the Northern Sea Route are met, Russia will by 2024 export more than 35 million tons of LNG from Yamal and nearby Gydan, as well as more than 20 million tons of coal and 20 million tons of oil from Taymyr.

The remote peninsula constitutes the northernmost part of mainland Russia and climatic conditions are extreme. Nature is vulnerable and industrial activities could seriously affect local ecosystems.

The plans to develop the coal resources in the area and the projected seaports have already encountered opposition from environmental authorities who argue that they could encroach on protected nature territories in the area.

With the new governmental decree, the project developers might have got the carte blanche they have been waiting for.

According to the federal government, the adopted decision provides the necessary permissions to «allocate lands, prepare documentation on territorial planning», as well as «to build capital objects.»

Tsavo Lion wrote:As I was saying, Su-34 r to patrol the NSR:
https://regnum.ru/news/it/2656001.html

A long winter is over and soon a new one will be on its way. Stockpiles are low and the people serving along the vast Russian northern coast and the remote Arctic archipelagos are soon hungry for fresh supplies.

There is no other way to get the goods delivered than by boat, and the delivery season is short. In October, the ice will again start to cover the seaways and make shipping expensive and complicated.

The Northern Fleet is in a hurry to get its many bases equipped and ready for a new cold season, and ships are now shuttling across Arctic waters with deliveries.

According to the Navy, a total of 17,300 tons had been delivered by mid-July. Another 20,000 tons are left to be shipped. The full amount of about 37,000 tons is to be safely delivered by 1st October.

There are as many as 60 bases and units across the region that are to be supplied. They are located in 48 different remote and hard-to-reach places, the Northern Fleet informs.

The Russian Armed Forces have over the last years significantly strengthened its presence in the Arctic and there are now more servicemen based in the region than any time before. Among the biggest new and upgraded bases in the region are the ones in Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, New Siberian Islands, Tiksi, Cape Shmidt and Wrangle Island.

A number of ships are involved in the deliveries. Among them is the nuclear-powered container ship «Sevmorput». The 260 meter long vessel with a deadweight of 33,000 tons has recently been engaged in deliveries to the Nagurskoye base in Franz Josef Land.

The vessel in early July loaded a big number of 21-ton heavy modules destined one of the Arctic military bases, the Murmansk Commercial Seaport informs.

It is located on Franz Josef Land at 80 degrees North and built to be able to handle all kinds of aircrafts, including the biggest in the country’s Air Force. This week, a ship delivered 9,000 tons of construction materials to the remote Arctic archipelago. That came after delivery of another 11,000 tons just few weeks ago.

Included in the cargo were concrete plates for the 2,500 meter long runway. Also electric cables were part of the shiploads, the Northern Fleet informs.

It will be the airstrip located closest to the North Pole, further north than Norway’s Longyearbyen and Thule in Greenland. It will also be significantly further north than the Kotelny base in the New Siberian Islands.

It was the cargo ship «Vitus Bering» that this week delivered the goods to the remote island, representatives of the Northern Fleet say. The ship belongs to an ice-breaking class of vessels called Project 10620 that was extensively used for Arctic shipping in the 1980s and 1990s. A total of five ships of the class were built. A modified vessel of the kind called Project 10621 was subsequently built. The latter includes the «Ivan Papanin» and the «Xue Long», the current Chinese icebreaker.

According to shipping data, the «Vitus Bering» was taken out of service in 2003 and the «Ivan Papanin» - in 2018. However, judging from the information from the Northern Fleet, the former has now been taken back into service and now operates for the Navy.

There is still up to one meter thick ice around major parts of the Franz Josef Land, and icebreaking capacities is a necessity for the deliveries. According to the Navy, the construction materials were put straight on the ice and subsequently brought to land.

The Nagurskoye air field is now 70 percent finished, the Northern Fleet says.

Several ships delivered goods to the Nagurskoye also in fall 2018. In September, two ships brought several thousand tons of construction materials to the base. The cargo first of all included reinforced concrete plates and big bags with granulated materials for the airstrip, port authorities said.

In east Arctic archipelago of New Siberian Island, the Temp airbase is about 1800 meters long.

Russia is also building new and upgraded air bases along its Arctic coast, including in Tiksi, Vorkuta, Anadyr and Alykel.

PapaDragon wrote:
Ain't got a clue what's this supposed to be exactly but description says "Arctic unmanned bus" so I'm putting it here:

https://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/120639/

GarryB wrote:Interesting vid... the next one after that shows a whole lot of rednecks driving huge utes with big tires and enormous engines through a trench filled with mud and water. The Sherp is almost cheating as it is amphibious, but then those American vehicles are supposed to be designed to operate in that terrain... hense they are testing them.

American vehicles are all noise and fuel consumption and tires and seem to get stuck really quick, while the Russian just floats right across... the commentators and those that comment below complain that amphibious vehicles are cheating, but it seems to me an amphibious vehicle is the obvious choice to defeat the obstacle.

Seems to me they picked the wrong sort of test for their vehicles... and the guy who won took a gun to a knife fight... ironic really as the US military tend to take star destroyers to conkers fights anyway...