Russia To Deploy Anti-Ship Bastion Missile Systems In Arctic This Year

Russia will deploy new Bastion anti-ship missile system in the Arctic in 2015 for enhancing capabilities of its Northern fleet, Sputnik News reported Monday.

The coastal defense missile system is designed to destroy various enemy ships that includes landing squadrons, convoys, carrier strike groups and single vessels.

“There will be a considerable renewing of equipment and armament for the coastal forces” Admiral Vladimir Korolev, commander of the Northern Fleet said.

Russia will built new ships in medium terms that are equipped for Arctic operations in the Northern Fleet. Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Admiral Viktor Chirkov said that special attention has been given and will be given further to the fleet development.The Northern Fleet is also expected to get new ships equipped for Arctic operations, said Chirkov.

Recently Northern Fleet’s anti-air defense received S-400 missile system and some Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile systems were deployed in other parts of the Arctic.

The K-300P Bastion-P, a Russian mobile coastal defence missile system, was co-developed with the Belarus company Tekhnosoyuzproekt. The system uses the P-800 Oniks anti-ship cruise missile and has a maximum range of 300 km. The missile system is mounted on a mobile vehicle that can deploy its missiles in under five minutes and remain on active standby over a period of 3–5 days.