Russia to Create Multimillion Dollar Arctic Monitoring System by 2025

An integrated system to monitor conditions in the Arctic, including both civilian and military segments, will be created in Russia by 2025, developer RTI Systems concern said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The cost of the system is estimated at around 6 billion rubles, or over $93 million at the current exchange rate.

It will consist of several elements, specifically, primary sources of information received from surface wave radars, underwater lighting, a highly elliptical orbit space system and remote-controlled drones. The system will be amplified with transport and communications equipment.

"By 2020-2025, a system to monitor conditions in the Arctic will be created. This includes the creation of a single information space, monitoring the situation in the air, on water, underwater and on land. It is a dual purpose system, both civilian and military," a spokesperson for the concern told RIA Novosti.

Russia is monitoring Arctic waters and airspace at a distance of over 300 miles from the coastline, a representative of the country’s Defense Ministry said in late July.

In February 2013, Moscow announced a strategy to increase its presence in the Arctic and boost the region's development by 2020. Since then, Russia has been particularly active in exploring opportunities in the Arctic and is set to build a unified network of military facilities in the region in order to strengthen its border defense.