Moscow. March 29. INTERFAX-The crew of the MiG-31BM fighter of the Northern Fleet during a five-hour scheduled flight over the Arctic twice replenished the fuel supply in the air from the IL-78 tanker aircraft, the press service of the Northern Fleet reported on Monday.
"The crew of the MiG-31BM fighter-interceptor of the separate mixed fighter aviation regiment of the Northern Fleet during the scheduled flight over the Arctic made two refueling operations in the air from the IL-78 tanker," the Northern Fleet reported.
They noted that the MiG-31 took off from the all-season airfield "Nagurskaya" on the island of Alexandra Land of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, flew to the North Pole and returned to the home airfield on the Kola Peninsula, the flight duration was about five hours.
On March 26, Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Nikolai Evmenov reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that two Russian MiG-31 long-range interceptors had flown over the North Pole.
"A flight in the circumpolar region with refueling in the air by a pair of MiG-31s with the passage of the geographical point of the North Pole in the forward and reverse directions," Evmenov said.
The Russian Armed Forces receive upgraded MiG-31BM aircraft. As reported by Interfax, this aircraft in the modification of the MiG-31K became the first aircraft carrier of hypersonic weapons - the Dagger missile system.
