The Soviet Union was actively exploring the Arctic, building airfields and military camps in the northern possessions, but that era is long gone. Due to the end of the Cold War, most of the infrastructure was abandoned, leaving only environmental pollution in the form, for example, of the notorious diesel barrels. Nowadays, the understanding has come that the Arctic region is of too great strategic importance for Russia to be able to afford to save on a military presence.
War shamrock
The northernmost outpost of Russia has a very futuristic look. The Arctic Trefoil military base is under the jurisdiction of the Northern Fleet and is an object of a closed cycle. Here 150 servicemen will be able to spend two years in a completely autonomous mode.
Border guards in the winter garden
In 2005, work began on the modernization of the Nagurskoye frontier post located on Alexandra Land Island (part of the Franz Josef Land archipelago) near Svalbard. By 2008, a new closed-cycle town appeared here. In this case, a “closed cycle” means the formation of a complex in such a way that the transition between all its objects - residential, social, service, infrastructural - can be carried out through heated galleries, without going outside. Thus, border guards have to get out into the arctic frost and into the arms of a blizzard of high latitudes only during a patrol. Perhaps, for the first time at an Arctic facility, a level of comfort was created that the USSR border guards could not dream of even in the sweetest dreams: spacious heated rooms, comfortable dwellings, a gym, a winter garden. In the same spirit, other similar projects developed in the future: maximum convenience and comfort were supposed to compensate for the physiological and psychological burdens of serving in conditions where only polar bears feel at home.
Defense in the snow
Here, on Alexandra Land, the air defense facilities of the Northern Fleet are located. The locator antennas point towards the pole. The task of restoring a continuous radar field along the northern borders of the country is one of the first.
Arctic shield
In February 2013, the President of Russia approved the Strategy for the Development of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation and Ensuring National Security for the Period until 2020. An essential part of this document is made up of plans to expand Russia's military presence in the Arctic. From Alexandra Land in the western Arctic possessions of Russia to Cape Schmidt and Wrangel Island in the east, it is planned to restore and expand the network of military strongholds, whose tasks will include the protection of the state border, reconnaissance activities, providing anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense with the creation of a continuous radar field, maintaining the airfield infrastructure for military transport and combat aviation, support for the actions of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy. Since the adoption of the strategy, work to ensure defense in the Arctic has intensified dramatically, especially in the field of construction. Today on Kotelny Island (Novosibirsk Islands) a closed-cycle residential town “North Clover” has been built, designed to accommodate more than 250 servicemen. An administrative and residential complex “Arctic Trefoil” with an area of more than 14,000 m2 for 150 people is being built on Alexandra Land. This facility will function in the interests of the Northern Fleet. Similar construction projects are underway at Cape Schmidt and Wrangel Island. By 2016-2017, the reconstruction of six Arctic airfields should be completed.
We talked about the technology of construction in high latitudes with the chief engineer of the Main Department of Engineering Works No. 2 under the Spetsstroy of Russia, Islam Pirakhmaev. “Apart from the presence of air and water, the rest of the Arctic construction is not much different from the construction on Mars,” says Islam Pirakhmaev. “That is why, before we start to build something, we need to think over the placement of construction teams in the icy desert and ensure the delivery of almost everything that is needed for the construction.”
Thoughts about the future
While some Arctic facilities are under construction, others are at the design stage. Here is a project of a promising military town made of octagon-shaped blocks, then a sectional block.
We take everything with us
The most important thing is transport, in which sea vessels play a decisive role, but also air and road transport is of great importance.
Large-tonnage cargo is delivered to the Arctic islands during open and ice navigation - in the latter case, icebreaker escort is required. Since the main production facilities in Russia are concentrated in the western part of the country, it is advisable to use deep-water ports in the north of European Russia. There are three of them, however, given that Murmansk operates mainly in the western directions, the main cargo for construction is delivered by road to two other ports - Arkhangelsk and Kandalaksha. Ships set out in July, when the water in the Arctic Ocean is free of ice to the maximum and is available for navigation, for example, the Vilkitsky Strait, which gives access from the Kara Sea to the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea, washing the northern coast of Chukotka.
Ships arriving on islands and hard-to-reach mainland territories first unload cranes and other construction equipment ashore. All liquids and fillers contained in the mechanisms of these machines correspond to the Arctic class and remain operational at temperatures down to -60 ° C. Further, the elements are transferred from the ship to land, from which the buildings for the military town will be assembled. Next is the queue for metal structures, pipes and other elements of engineering communications. Now many infrastructure elements are delivered to the construction site assembled, in a high degree of factory readiness, which allows you to spend a minimum of time on installation. A very important point is the organization of the builders' accommodation. Trailers used to be the standard temporary housing in the Arctic, but nowadays it was considered that it makes no sense to carry empty cubic capacity on expensive polar flights. Construction huts are assembled from panel structures, which also arrive by ship. Since the assembly of these dwellings is carried out during the warm season, the assembly team lives in tents or in the ship's quarters. The construction camp of 800 m2 is completed in 10-12 days.
When the main team of builders arrives at the site, their task is to erect and close from the elements the warm contours of the complex under construction before the onset of a harsh polar winter with winds and snowfalls. Further, the construction site is either conserved until the next season, or during the winter period finishing work, installation of communications continues, but already inside, warm.
The power supply and heating of the Arctic towns is carried out by diesel generators. “We have experimented with green generation,” says Islam Pirakhmaev, “but alternative energy sources such as solar or wind are too expensive. But now we do not have any barrels of diesel fuel. The complexes include tanks for permanent storage of fuel, and they are periodically replenished with the help of tankers."
City on the lens
Construction in the Arctic has many engineering features. Structures have to be erected on unstable terrain, under which there is permafrost or even a "lens", that is, a layer of ice mixed with soil. This foundation cannot be destroyed, otherwise the structures themselves will not stand. All structures are built on pile foundations. The piles are bored. A pipe is lowered into the drilled well, the cavity of which is poured with concrete. The piles are long - they can reach 25 m. On top of the piles, a grillage is assembled from metal beams, and a building is already being erected on it. All buildings on permafrost are raised above the ground. “Everything in the tundra must be cleaned,” explains Islam Pirakhmaev. “Houses rise above the ground not only in order not to warm the permafrost, but also so that the wind blows snow from under the buildings, preventing it from sticking in the form of lumps”.
The building that will grow on the grillage can be of several types. For example, block-modular from ready-made elements with finishing. If a span building is being erected (large area, such as a hangar), metal frames and sandwich panel coverings are used. And finally, one of the progressive technologies is the assembly of structures from light galvanized steel profiles. Of these, the building can be literally assembled by hand.
Snow tiger
The Russian defense industry is working on the creation of military equipment designed for the conditions of the Arctic. In the photo: the arctic version of the armored car "Tiger". For example, a polar version of the Mi-8 AMTSh-VA transport and assault helicopter is also being developed.
The water supply for Arctic towns comes from three sources. You can take water from open fresh water bodies (in the warm season), you can melt snow, then passing this distilled water through a mineralizer, and, finally, the third method is desalination of sea water. Sewage water is sent to the treatment plant, which at the outlet gives drinking water. It can be discharged into the sea without the slightest damage to the environment.
A separate problem is pipes for water supply and sewerage. Using metal is a big risk, since in severe frosts such a pipe can break. At polar objects, preference is given to polypropylene pipes with a heating cable acting as a heating element. The channel with such a cable goes along the pipe, and this whole structure is wrapped in a layer of polyurethane foam. Such a pipe can pass liquid in the most severe frost, but even if the cable temporarily stops heating, the pipe will not burst with frozen water, but simply slightly inflate. When the heat recovers and the ice melts, the pipe will return to its normal cross-section. Another important advantage of such pipes is that they can be transported in drums, in a coiled form, which saves space on a ship or in the hold of a cargo plane.
Anti-aircraft gunner town
Here: a draft design for the deployment of an anti-aircraft missile battalion of a new look. Next: the project of the Arctic complex to accommodate 300 military personnel.
Barrels - down with
The program for the military development of the Arctic is closely related to the tasks of preserving the ecological purity of this unique region. The construction of new towns and bases is accompanied by the cleaning of the territories from the remains of old buildings, non-working equipment, as well as from fuel barrels and other debris. In newly built townships, garbage is sorted by type (paper, organic waste, plastic), and then transported by ships to the mainland for recycling. The least hazardous types of waste are incinerated on site in incinerators. Thus, it can be hoped that new facilities in the polar territories will not only provide the military with hitherto unprecedented technical capabilities and comfort, but will also make it possible to avoid in the future those environmental problems that were created in our North by the previous stages of its development.
