As the Izvestia newspaper reported in the article by Bogdan Stepovoy and Alexey Ramm "Icy reception: The Northern Sea Route was covered by a mixed aviation corps," the Northern Sea Route will be protected by a mixed Arctic aviation corps. It was formed as part of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy and has already begun to carry out tasks. It included two fighter, mixed and helicopter aviation regiments. The new combat formation will cover not only the important Arctic transport artery, but also the northern islands from air, land, surface and underwater enemy forces. Experts note that the ownership of the Northern Sea Route of Russia is disputed by other countries, so the authorities need to strengthen the northern borders.
The MiG-29KR naval fighter from the 100th separate naval fighter Aviation Regiment of the mixed Aviation Corps of the Northern Fleet. Severomorsk-3 (Murmansk region), December 2023 (c) the newspaper "On guard of the Arctic"
A mixed aviation corps (SAC) has been formed as part of the Northern Fleet. The new association was created on the basis of the 45th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense. One of the main tasks of the SAC is to protect the Northern Sea Route from enemy air, land, surface and underwater forces, sources in the military department told Izvestia.
The Joint Command of the Northern Fleet included the 45th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense. Now it has been decided to transfer the army to the newly formed Leningrad Military District. It was planned that a new air army would be formed "from scratch" as part of the LenVO. But, according to Izvestia's sources, such a decision was abandoned.
The mixed aviation corps of the Northern Fleet included two fighter naval aviation regiments - the 279th and the 100th. As well as the [403rd] mixed aviation regiment - it is armed with AN-12 and AN-26 transport aircraft and anti-submarine Il-38N. The [830th] helicopter regiment, equipped with search-and-rescue and anti-submarine Ka-27, Ka-29 and Mi-8AMTSh/MTV-5 transport and attack helicopters, also joined the SAC.
In addition to aviation, the corps command has anti-aircraft missile and radio engineering regiments at its disposal.
Aviation equipment of the mixed aviation corps has already started duty at Russian Arctic military bases. In particular, Su-33 and MiG-29KR fighters of naval aviation regiments perform tasks to cover the Northern Sea Route and other Arctic regions at the Rogachevo airfield on Novaya Zemlya.
At the board of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on December 19, the head of the military department, Sergei Shoigu, announced that this year two combined arms armies, 50 formations and military units, including four divisions, 18 brigades, 28 regiments, as well as a mixed aviation corps, were formed as part of the armed forces.
Areas of responsibility were divided between the newly formed Leningrad Military District and the Northern Fleet, military expert Dmitry Boltenkov told Izvestia.
- LenVO will be responsible for the defense of the border with Finland and Norway, - he believes. - The Northern Fleet will cover important naval bases, islands, the Northern Sea Route, our ships in the Barents and other seas. The tasks of the new mixed aviation corps will be defensive. There will be no peace in our North. In recent years, the activity of ships and spy planes on our northern borders has increased significantly, and the downward trend is not visible. On the contrary, it will only grow. NATO countries and a number of others are actually waging an undeclared war against us. In the event of an aggravation of the situation, the Northern Fleet will have to block the access of unfriendly fleets to the waters of the Northern Sea Route. Aviation is needed to solve this problem.
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Pilots of the mixed aviation corps of the Northern Fleet have already begun conducting exercises. In particular, training flights on Il-38 aircraft over the Barents Sea. In particular, on December 21, these aircraft fulfilled the tasks of group search and tracking of submarines of a simulated enemy with the integrated use of radar and sonar equipment. The flight missions were carried out in the conditions of the polar night.
The main purpose of the flights was to increase the coherence of the actions of pilots in groups when performing tasks for their intended purpose, the press service of the Northern Fleet reported.
On December 24, the Northern Fleet held exercises on the organization of security and defense of the airfield of the mixed aviation corps. At them, the military personnel were shown the features of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles of the quadcopter type and ways to combat them.
Prior to that, over the Kola Peninsula and the Barents Sea, the pilots of Ka-27 helicopters worked out interaction with the leadership group during flights at low temperatures.
On December 1, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation began to fulfill the president's instructions to build up the armed forces to 1 million 320 thousand people. The formation of the Leningrad and Moscow military districts is also continuing against the background of Finland's accession to NATO and Sweden's upcoming accession. When forming them, the agreement between Washington and Helsinki on the use of Finnish military facilities by the Americans, in particular air bases, is also taken into account.
Izvestia has already written that the Russian Defense Ministry has decided to create and deploy new military transport aviation regiments in the main strategic directions - western, northern and southern. And in the Far East, the first of them has already been created. The regiments will be equipped with Il-76, An-26 transport aircraft and, possibly, Mi-26 helicopters. The new units will allow for faster transfer of forces and funds to the threatened areas - this is necessary in a difficult military and political situation.
BMPD comment. Thus, after several years of absurd experiments with giving the Northern Fleet the status of an operational strategic command (military oruga) with subordination to it of all parts of the ground forces and the Air Force and air defense in the North, everything returned to normal and the "normal" Leningrad Military District is being restored in the northern direction, to which parts of the ground forces and the Air Force and Air defense is in his area of responsibility. Including all units of the Air Force and air defense, along with the directorate of the 45th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense, are withdrawing to the new district. The Northern Fleet is "reduced" to perform its usual tasks and retains only its traditional "ancestral" parts of naval aviation, which are now united by the directorate of the mixed aviation corps (obviously, the usual naval directorate of naval aviation could not do without managing four short aviation regiments).
According to our information, the anti-aircraft missile and radio engineering regiments are not part of the mixed corps and have also withdrawn from the 45th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense. At the same time, the authors of the material forgot to mention the 73rd separate anti-submarine aviation squadron at the Kipelovo airfield, equipped with Tu-142 aircraft.