The crew of the rescue tugboat Altai of the Northern Fleet search and rescue forces began training for the Barents 2019 annual joint Russian-Norwegian search-and-rescue exercises, says press center of RF Defence Ministry. Traditionally it will be held at the end of May in the waters of the Barents Sea. This year the event will take place in the Russian zone of responsibility.
The main objectives of the drills are to improve skills in searching and rescuing people in distress at sea, to prevent pollution of the marine area by oil products in the conditions of industrial development in the Arctic.
Tomorrow, on March 12, the first conference with representatives of Norway will be held in Murmansk, to discuss organizational issues of preparing and conducting the Barents-2019 exercise.
The Altai rescue tugboat, an Il-38 plane and a Ka-27PS helicopter will be detached from the Northern Fleet to participate in the combat training event. It is also planned to involve the multifunctional icebreaker Ilya Muromets, for which this exercise will be the first.
The Barents International Exercise is held annually in accordance with the 1995 Barents SAR Agreement between the Russian government and the Norwegian government on cooperation in search and rescue in the Barents Sea. The exercise is alternately supervised by representatives of the Russian and Norwegian search and rescue forces.