Russia Develops Underwater Drone System For Arctic Use

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – According to the Russian newspaper Izvestia, the new system will allow underwater drones to navigate at depths of up to 8 kilometers (5 miles), gathering information on their location and transmitting data using multiple buoys of different types (submerged, floating and frozen into ice).

"The system is fully ready for deployment. The first area where it will be used will be near the Prirazlomnaya offshore platform. Based on our finances, we plan to develop a global information network system of underwater monitoring and servicing oil producing areas," an Okeanpribor spokesperson told Izvestia on Thursday.

The buoys will be linked to the Russian Glonass navigation system.

The Arctic shelf is believed to hold enormous deposits of oil and natural gas. According to Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources, the total value of energy resources concentrated in Russia's Arctic region exceeds $30 trillion. Ministry experts predict that in the future, Russian oil and gas production will be mainly concentrated on the Arctic sea shelves.

In 2015, Russia submitted a revised bid to the United Nations, seeking to enlarge its share of the Arctic continental shelf.

Earlier this month, head of the physical-technical research projects group of the Advanced Research Fund (FPI) Viktor Litvinenko said that Russia was expected to create prototypes of special robots designed to explore the resources of the Arctic in 2018.