4th Air Defense Division New Land. Russia plans to restore the air defense system and airfields in the Arctic

The photo shows a radar that is part of the S-400 air defense complex. Photo by Pavel Sarychev\NG-Online

By the end of the year, an anti-aircraft missile regiment (ZRP) will be deployed on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago with a deployment location in the village of Rogachevo. The necessary infrastructure is being created there, including a dormitory for 500 people and a joint barracks. Since December 2015, the regiment as part of the 1st Air Defense Division of the Arctic Strategic Command (ASC) must go on combat duty. This was stated on Saturday by the deputy commander of the Arctic formation, Colonel Sergei Denisov.

A dual-use airfield is located near Rogachev, receiving all types of military personnel. aircraft. And nearby in Belushya Guba Bay, Spetsstroy is restoring the infrastructure for a full-fledged naval base.

All these defense facilities, as before during the Soviet era, in addition to other military-strategic tasks, will be intended to support the nuclear test site located on Novaya Zemlya, known as “Object 700”.

Nuclear testing ended here in 1990, when management Soviet Union declared a moratorium on them. However, several years ago, the media reported that Russia had resumed non-nuclear-explosive (subcritical) experiments in the interests of testing the reliability of nuclear weapons (NFW), as well as in order to improve them. These studies do not contradict the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which Russia was one of the first to sign and ratify. Although back in 2007, when he was the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, the current head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation, Sergei Ivanov, stated that the “Object 700” was maintained in constant readiness and the resumption of nuclear tests was possible at any time. Experts noted that this could happen if the United States violated the Treaty. Since then, as we know, the situation around Russia has become significantly more complicated and threats to its military security have only intensified. This means that there is a need to check and test new types nuclear weapons, with the help of which the Russian Federation maintains defense parity with the United States, has only intensified.

IN Soviet era The security of the nuclear test site was carried out by units and divisions of the air defense division, whose headquarters, like the headquarters of the nuclear test site, was located in Belushaya Guba. The air defense missile defense system and the country's air defense fighter aviation regiment were stationed on Novaya Zemlya. Later, when the USSR collapsed and nuclear tests were frozen, almost all air defense and aviation units on the archipelago were disbanded. And the “Object 700” itself was subordinated to the Northern Fleet. Only in 1998, the test site was again reassigned to the 12th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, which is responsible for the operation and safety of nuclear warheads.

It has not yet been officially announced whether fighter aircraft will be stationed in Rogachev. Although the media continues to circulate information that several squadrons of MiG-31 interceptor fighters will be deployed on the archipelago to solve aerospace defense tasks and cover the training ground. This version is supported by the fact that earlier the Chief of the Russian General Staff, Army General Valery Gerasimov, had already reported that the Rogachevo airfield was being actively modernized. And from a military point of view modern aviation is based at new airfields only if it is reliably covered by ground-based air defense systems. The runway in Rogachev has already been modernized. According to open sources, they are now “constantly flying” there military transport aircraft Il-76 and An-26. That is why, apparently, the anti-aircraft missile defense system on the archipelago should be deployed within six months.

Colonel Denisov reports that the radar units and aviation guidance points that entered the Arctic (on the archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya) on December 1, 2014 are recording an increased “interest in the Arctic from foreign countries: reconnaissance aircraft are constantly flying in high latitudes " Therefore, the air defense division constantly faces real, not only training, but also combat missions. Denisov does not hide the fact that during a surprise inspection of ASK troops in March 2015, “one of the division’s main tasks was to conduct combat operations to repel massive enemy missile and air strikes.” The officer notes that air defense units protected “infrastructure facilities of the Northern Fleet, the 12th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, administrative institutions and regional industrial and energy enterprises” from an aerospace attack. From these words of his, it becomes clear that the anti-aircraft missile regiment being formed on Novaya Zemlya will cover not only the nuclear test site and naval facilities, but also the world’s largest mining and processing plant (part of the Rosatom corporation) being built there for the extraction of lead, zinc and other valuable metals.

Archipelago Novaya Zemlya

The creation of military infrastructure on the archipelago began long before the opening of the nuclear test site there (September 17, 1954) - during the Great Patriotic War. In 1942, to fight the ships of Nazi Germany, the Novaya Zemlya Naval Base (NAB) was created there, where two formations of patrol ships were stationed in the waters of Belushya Guba, and several artillery batteries and air defense systems were stationed on the shore. A military airfield was built in Rogachev, where Soviet fighters were stationed.

And the Arctic walks near Novaya Zemlya,
The Arctic is shaking.
Yu. Vizbor. New Earth. 1970

The military played a leading role in the development of many remote territories of our country. Somewhere in the Far North and Far East garrisons are still the main type of settlements. True, in post-Soviet times the number of such garrisons and the population in them sharply decreased. However, our geography textbooks still do not write anything about “military” development, even in cases where it has long been no longer a secret. This is a little surprising, since for many both old-developed areas and newly developed regions, parts of various law enforcement agencies perform the functions of city-forming enterprises.

Novaya Zemlya (area 83 thousand km2) separates the Barents and Kara Seas. This is one of the oldest islands in the Arctic Ocean in terms of the time of discovery. Exact time discovery of the islands is unknown; most likely, this happened during the independence of Veliky Novgorod. Its ancient name, Matka, also testifies to the antiquity of the discovery of Novaya Zemlya. Hence the name Matochkin Shar Strait. Apparently, this name comes from the Finno-Ugric word matka - path. Franz Josef Land was discovered in late XIX V. an Austro-Hungarian expedition that set off in 1872 in search of the Northeast Passage, and perhaps to reach the North Pole, and in 1873, pressed by ice to the shores of a hitherto unknown land, named after the then Emperor of Austria-Hungary. Z.F.I., as it is usually called in the North, has an area of ​​approximately 16 thousand km 2 and consists of 191 islands.

The first permanent settlement on Novaya Zemlya appeared in 1877. It is called Malye Karmakuly. In 1896, a hydrometeorological station was created in Malye Karmakuly, which exists to this day and is the oldest polar station in Russia.

As the islands were developed, new bays opened and new settlements were built. One of these settlements was the current “capital” of Novaya Zemlya, the village of Belushya Guba, founded in 1897. In addition to Belushya Guba and Malye Karmakul, several more settlements were created on Novaya Zemlya before the revolution, all of them have long since disappeared.

Years Civil War New Earth had a hard time. Since its development before the revolution was financed by state funds, and their receipt in 1917-1919. stopped, the population of the islands found themselves in a very difficult situation.

In the 20s, the creation of new settlements and polar stations continued. For example, on the shore of the Black Bay, the Krasino camp was built, the remains of which have survived to this day. In the 30s, polar stations were built at Cape Zhelaniya, in the Russian Harbor, on the coast of Matochkina Shar (Cape Stolbovoy). At the same time, polar stations were created in Western F.I., which in 1928 was officially declared part of the territory of the USSR.

In 1942, German forces began to penetrate the shores of Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land. submarines. And not only penetrate, but also settle here. The Germans placed automatic hydrometeorological stations on the shores of Novaya Zemlya, and a polar station (Alexandra Land) was built on Franz Josef Land. The remains of this station were discovered in the 50s.

To fight the German fleet in 1942, the Novaya Zemlya Naval Base (NAB) was created, which had temporary status. The base included almost all existing by that time settlements and polar stations. The headquarters of the Novaya Zemlya Naval Base was located in Belushya Guba. The base was given two formations of patrol ships, several coastal defense batteries and half-batteries, as well as anti-aircraft artillery batteries. The Rogachevo airfield was built 12 km from Belushya Guba.

In July 1942, several ships of the notorious convoy PQ-17 approached Novaya Zemlya. Polar stations, ships and settlements on Novaya Zemlya were fired upon by German submarines.

In the fall of 1942, German planes bombed Belushya Guba. In the spring of 1943, I-15bis fighters were stationed at the Rogachevo airfield. The first military pilots on Novaya Zemlya lived in tents all year round. Only after visiting the islands in winter can you appreciate the feat of these people.

In 1946, the Novaya Zemlya naval base was abolished. The Navy ships left the island, and the guns of the artillery batteries were removed. The years of existence of the base, however, gave a powerful impetus to the development of Belushya Guba. The Rogachevo airfield provides the village with the position of the “capital of the islands”. In 1947, the first Nagurskoye airfield was created on Alexandra Land, part of Franz Josef Land.
Belushya Guba (“Belushka”).

In the 50s, the Arctic began to be considered by the USSR and the USA as a likely theater of military operations, since the shortest route for strategic aviation between the two then superpowers ran through North Pole. The newly created Air Defense Forces (Air Defense Forces of the country) are showing interest in creating positions on the Arctic islands, including on Novaya Zemlya. Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land are beginning to be viewed as a kind of “umbrella” covering from the north European part USSR.

In 1949, the first atomic explosion was carried out in the USSR at the Semipalatinsk test site. The decision to create a second, naval, training ground was made in 1953. There are several reasons why Novaya Zemlya became the location for its location. The routes to the islands were well known, the coast was more or less developed, piers and an airfield were built. However, there were vast uninhabited areas here.

In 1954, work began on creating a testing ground. The first place chosen for testing atomic weapons was Chernaya Bay, where an underwater atomic explosion was carried out on September 21, 1955. In 1957, the only ground explosion on Novaya Zemlya was carried out here. In the 80s, the shores of the Black Bay were littered with armored vehicles - tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, on which, apparently, the effects of atomic explosions were tested. The test village is being built not far from Black Bay, in Bashmachnaya Bay. The territory between the Black and Bashmachnaya lips is being built up with various kinds of structures, the purpose of which is not always possible to guess. But their number, and often their size, is amazing. In those places it is very easy to understand what the planet would become if the “products” tested on Novaya Zemlya found their combat use.

Apparently, the village on the shore of Bashmachnaya Bay was abandoned in 1969, when a blowout occurred radioactive gas after testing in limestone. In this village, everything bears traces of a hasty escape, even the mortar left near the unfinished brick wall. In the center of the village in the 80s there was still a monument with the inscription “In memory of our fallen comrades” (I am reproducing the text from memory, I saw it once, and more than twenty years ago). The monument to fallen comrades in the center of the dead village makes a strong impression. The area of ​​the Black and Bashmachnaya lips subsequently became known as the “Southern Zone” of the test site; after the 1969 release and the evacuation of the village, tests were not carried out here.

The official date of creation of the training ground on Novaya Zemlya is considered to be September 17, 1954, when, in accordance with the directive of the General Staff of the Navy, the training ground was designated as military unit 77510. The number of the military unit remains the same now, although the training ground itself is no longer subordinate to the Navy, but directly to the Ministry of Defense. This day, September 17, 1954, is considered the official founding day of the village of Belushya Guba. On the thirtieth anniversary of this directive, in 1984, a monument to the “Founders of the Garrison” was erected in Belushya Guba. 1954-1984".

The Navy is creating a system of units that monitor the movement of ships in the Novaya Zemlya area. These units are located mainly at former polar stations, although some of these stations (for example, Malye Karmakuly, Cape Zhelaniya and Cape Menshikov) continue to operate in “civilian” mode. Attempts were made to resume basing warships on Novaya Zemlya, but these attempts were unsuccessful. For nine months of the year, when there was ice off the Novaya Zemlya coast, the use of these ships was impossible.

Simultaneously with the Navy units, units of the country's Air Defense Forces begin to deploy on Novaya Zemlya. The headquarters of the 4th Air Defense Division, as well as the headquarters of the training ground, was located in Belushya Guba. It consisted of radio engineering, anti-aircraft missile and fighter aviation regiments located on Novaya Zemlya, the north-east of the European part of the USSR and Yamal. Units of the 3rd Radio Engineering Regiment (RTR) are deployed on Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land. The southernmost “point” of the 3rd RTP was located on Cape Menshikov. The northernmost “points” were located on Franz Josef Land - Graham Bell and Nagurskaya, and in the second half of the 80s a “point” was deployed on Victoria Island, located between W.F.I. and Spitsbergen. The “points” of the 3rd RTP on Franz Josef Land and Victoria Island were the northernmost military units of the Soviet Union. The anti-aircraft missile regiment covered Belushya Guba and Rogachevo, the fighter aviation regiment was based at the Rogachevo airfield and was also intended mainly to protect Novaya Zemlya itself.

Somewhat later on Novaya Zemlya and Z.F.I. The deployment of units and subunits of other military branches and branches of the armed forces begins. There were parts here Missile Forces strategic purposes, which monitored the test launches of missiles and the launch spacecraft from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. Military construction units (“construction battalions”) are stationed in Belushaya Guba. On Alexandra Land in the 70s, the Nagurskaya border post was created, which became the northernmost border outpost The Soviet Union and present-day Russia. This border post still exists today.

On Graham Bell Island, part of Franz Josef Land, there was a separate air command post that maintained an ice airfield capable of receiving heavy aircraft.

In 1956, the creation of the “Northern Zone” test site began in the area of ​​the Matochkin Shar Strait. At the western entrance to the strait on the southern side, the village of Severny is being built, where the main tests were carried out in the 60-70s. If the “Southern Zone” of the test site was created for testing atomic weapons, then the initial purpose of creating the “Northern Zone” was to test nuclear weapons, which are many times more powerful than atomic weapons. Major nuclear weapons testing ( hydrogen bombs) were held on Novaya Zemlya.

In 1957, the entire local population was evicted from the islands and the military became its undivided masters. Since that time, Novaya Zemlya has not performed any economic functions. From the period of “civil” development of Novaya Zemlya in Belushaya Guba, only a few wooden buildings remained in the pier area, on one of which there is (or was?) a wooden memorial plaque with the inscription: “The Novaya Zemlya Island Council of Workers’ Deputies was located here, the permanent chairman of which was Ilya (Tyko) Vylka.” In total, 298 people were resettled from Novaya Zemlya to the mainland.

From 1957 to 1999, no “civil” power existed in this part of the country; the highest authority on Novaya Zemlya was the commander of military unit 77510. In fact, Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land were outside the grid of administrative-territorial division of the USSR, subordinate directly to Moscow.

The most powerful “product” that was tested over Novaya Zemlya was a bomb with 500 megatons of TNT equivalent. This test was carried out on October 30, 1961 over North Island. In 1962, atomic testing in the air, on land and under water was stopped. From that time on, only underground tests were carried out on Novaya Zemlya, carried out mainly in the Northern zone of the test site. The number of these tests is sharply decreasing: if in 1962 there were 36 of them, then in all subsequent years there were mainly 1-2 per year, with a maximum of 4 (1975). These tests were carried out from 1963 to 1984, they were not carried out in 1985 and 1986, then they were resumed, and during the 1987 tests a release of radioactive gas occurred. The last tests of nuclear weapons on Novaya Zemlya were carried out on October 24, 1990. Since then, only explosions of non-nuclear ammunition have been carried out at the Northern Test Site, mainly to maintain the technical condition of the test site.

In the first decades of the “military” development of Novaya Zemlya, atomic weapons testers and defenders of the northern air borders lived in conditions that would most correctly be called terrible. Residential buildings and barracks were mostly wooden and for the most part were barracks that had neither running water nor sewerage. A more or less stable water supply could be established only where there were large lakes with drinking water. In all other places we had to make do with water obtained from melting snow. Only in the 70s and 80s were permanent buildings built in Belushya Guba and Rogachevo, the construction of which took into account “northern” standards - high ceilings, triple glazing, etc.

However, at points built in the second half of the 50s, living conditions remained largely the same until the end of their existence (early 90s). For the inhabitants of the points, Belushya Guba and Rogachevo were indeed “capitals”; service at the points was inhumanly difficult. There was no “northern romance,” as some might think, in such a service. While officers received double or triple salary and two years of service, the soldiers received nothing. Isolation from the mainland was aggravated by a long stay in a very small team, where all relationships were strained to the limit, and by “hazing,” which flourished here, as in all Armed Forces. There have been cases of escape “to nowhere”, since it is impossible to leave Novaya Zemlya.

What is the basis for the Ministry of Defense’s confidence that the country is “reliably protected from all missile-hazardous directions”? This year 2014 in Russia has been declared the year of culture. But this is in the country as a whole. And in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, apparently, 2014 is the year of air defense. The result was a sensation. According to Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Yuri Borisov, today our country is “reliably protected from all missile-hazardous directions.”

If this is true, we could not boast of anything like this, at least for the last quarter of a century. And then this is the most serious achievement of our defense department. Especially considering the fact that all modern wars begin (and sometimes end victoriously) with just one aerospace operation. Even if it lasts for weeks or months.

An aerospace operation is when suddenly thousands of precision weapons fall on military and industrial facilities, control posts, bridges, dams, airfields, railway stations, ports, the largest factories and factories. Not necessarily in nuclear equipment - in conventional equipment. But capable of getting not only, say, into some factory management building, but through a window into the decanter on the table of the director’s office. Even if air defense forces manage to shoot down half of this predatory flock, the remaining air attack weapons can still instantly plunge almost any country into darkness, cold and hunger. And in a matter of hours, deprive her of any opportunity to wage any war other than a partisan one.

The whole world has seen how this happens in practice using the examples of Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya. And if Deputy Defense Minister Borisov is not wishful thinking, Russia is now among those few states against which it makes no sense to even plan an aerospace operation. But isn’t Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov being disingenuous? How did such a magical strengthening of Russian air borders happen in a matter of years? From the solid “black holes” that were obvious to everyone until recently, to a downright reinforced concrete fortress?

Let's listen further to the deputy minister. " Today we have practically no unprotected territories. Now we have a continuous information field", he reported. A senior official of the Ministry of Defense did not decipher this thesis, but it is already clear what he means. The gigantic efforts that Russia has been making over the past two to three years to restore the military infrastructure of the air defense forces are gradually paying off. First of all, in the Arctic. After all, since 1993, it was the Arctic coast that was our biggest “black hole”, through which anyone and on anything could fly into the country undetected.

This is in Soviet years beyond the Arctic Circle we had such a radar field that a mouse couldn’t get past it. Both then and today, the Northern strategic aerospace direction was considered the main one among those bringing the aviation of a potential enemy to industrial and administrative centers countries. Therefore, let’s say, only the Western sector of our Arctic was covered by five battalions and sixteen radio engineering companies (RTV companies) of the 4th Air Defense Division ( New land, Belushaya lip). Not counting the countless anti-aircraft missile systems and interceptor fighters.

The division's forward radar stations were scattered across islands and capes forever frozen in ice so remote that helicopters and airplanes did not fly there every week. Graham Bell Island (Franz Josef Land archipelago), Nagurskoye (at the northern tip of the Alexandra Land island of the Franz Josef Land archipelago), Bely Island in the Kara Sea, Maressala (Yamal Peninsula), Ust-Kara (Nenets autonomous region). It was first milestone radar cover.

Second milestone- RTV companies at Cape Zhelaniya (Novaya Zemlya), in Russkaya Gavan (Novaya Zemlya), at Cape Nikolai (Arkhangelsk region).

There was also third milestone. It was provided by units and units of the 10th Separate Air Defense Army deployed on the mainland of the Arctic coast of the USSR. No one could slip through this all-seeing electronic sieve unnoticed. But only until 1992. Then someone very smart in Moscow decided that the country could not afford polar garrisons in these wild lands. Why, if “new thinking” and beautiful “universal human values” were in honour?

Since January 1, 1993, by directive of the General Staff, our air defense troops left Graham Bell, Nagurskoye, Cape Zhelaniya, Russkaya Gavan and Cape Nikolai without a fight. Then the retreat continued and soon turned into a stampede from the Arctic.

They abandoned everything - stations, control points, houses, barracks, canteens. The country above the Arctic Circle went voluntarily blind for decades. Or she was deliberately blinded.

What has changed today? And today we are spending a lot of money to restore a continuous information field and return air defense troops and fighter aircraft to those parts. 6 billion rubles were allocated to Spetsstroy only for the restoration of radar stations and guidance points on the islands of the Severnaya Zemlya, Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land archipelagos. Some things have already been done. Since the beginning of October, air defense units have taken up experimental combat duty on Wrangel Island, Kotelny Island and on Cape Otto Schmidt.

In total, 10 positions for air target detection stations are now being practically rebuilt on the Arctic coast. This, of course, is significantly less than it was before the pogrom of the air defense in these parts in 1993. Well, that's it technical progress does not stand still. Even in Russia.

In this sense, Russian air defense specialists pin great hopes on the recently created NPO "LEMZ" Dual-use route radar complex (TRLC DN), designed for reconnaissance and control of airspace. These smart machines are able to automatically monitor the sky around the clock for 15 years at a distance of up to 400 km and altitudes of up to 30 km.

Only those who have begun to join the air defense troops can see even further radar systems, capable of detecting any airborne objects at ranges and altitudes of more than 1000 km. Ten such radars will be installed this year. And the first “Sopka-2” has been on combat duty on Kotelny Island since the summer.

So it may very well be that there is no need to restore all the old Soviet garrisons in the Arctic Circle - now we can cope with it with fewer forces. And yet there are suspicions that Deputy Defense Minister Borisov was in a hurry with his victory report. Even according to the plan, the arrangement of the positions of new air defense stations in the Arctic should be completed by Spetsstroy only at the end of 2015. And everyone knows how plans are implemented in Russia.

It also takes time for the military to master new equipment and settle into those inhospitable places. Therefore it is unlikely new system has already worked so effectively that it can report that the country is “reliably protected from all missile-hazardous directions.”

In addition, there are doubts of a more serious nature. Well, let’s say that in a year or two we will be able to timely detect combat aircraft or cruise missiles attacking us from the northern direction. What's next? Logically, we need to shoot them down next. And with what? The Ministry of Defense and the General Staff have heard nothing about setting up new anti-aircraft missile regiments beyond the Arctic Circle.

Fighters? Yes, for them, as well as for the jumping of strategic bombers, 13 airfields are being recreated in the Far North. However, apparently, only one interceptor has been prepared for permanent deployment in the Arctic - in the village of Rogachevo on Novaya Zemlya. During the Soviet years, the 63rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, equipped with Su-27 fighters, was stationed there. Now, as announced by the Ministry of Defense, MiG-31s ​​will be stationed on Novaya Zemlya. How many - regiment or squadron? - This is probably a military secret for now.

But neither a regiment nor a squadron of even the most remarkable MiGs is able to cover all 22.5 thousand kilometers of the Arctic coast of Russia. During the threatened period, transfer reinforcements in the form of new aviation fighter regiments to the remaining 12 airfields? This is if we have time.

Well, that is, by that time we will most likely discover the enemy in time. What we will do next is a big question. And where is it? reliable protection“from all missile-dangerous directions,” Comrade Borisov?