PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, July 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will include the Caspian and Barents Seas in its national system of global control in the next two years, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Thursday.
"We will be able to do that within two years," Ivanov said after arriving in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the administrative center of the Kamchatsk region in the Russian Far East.
According to Ivanov, Russia intends to create a system of surface, underwater, and air control first in the Caspian flotilla and then in its Northern Fleet.
"It is a priority for the Caspian Sea because this region, like any region in the south, causes the most concern," he said.
A similar control system has been deployed in the Pacific fleet for about two years and is regularly used during exercises conducted by the defense ministry, interior ministry, and the FSB. The system provides a way to monitor the situation in the region from the Bering Strait to Japan.
The system that will be deployed in the Caspian and Barents Seas will have a dual purpose (civilian and military).
According to Ivanov, it is a multi-component system that includes various surface-, underwater-, and air-based means of detection and control with the possibility to transmit information in real-time to Moscow.
The implementation of the GLONASS federal target program will have an additional effect, Ivanov said. The program envisions all means of transportation being equipped with the Global Navigation Satellite System (similar to the GPS system in the U.S.).
The deployment of both systems will have an enormous positive impact on the Russian economy, Ivanov concluded.
