Experts from the Russian Defense Ministry's Main Motor Vehicle and Armor Directorate and industry representatives have started studying and testing new types of weapons and military and special-purpose equipment in the Arctic, Deputy Russian Defense Minister Army General Dmitry Bulgakov told Interfax.

"In the next few weeks, they will ride all-terrain vehicles through snow-covered areas and marshes from the town of Tiksi to Kotelny Island and back. They will also cross the ice-covered Laptev Sea, straits between local islands and the coastal zone," General Bulgakov said.

Expedition members and their equipment have everything they need for a successful trip, Defense Ministry sources noted. Soldiers are wearing modern Arctic uniforms and have enough food and fuel at their disposal.

"During their autonomous 2,000-kilometer-plus voyage, expedition members will evaluate new engineering solutions of military tracked crawler vehicles responsible for their self-contained operations, combat readiness and comfortable living conditions inside habitation modules at temperatures as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius, reliable operations on tussocks and deep snow drifts during the polar night and blizzards with wind speeds reaching over 35 meters per second, and in other adverse Extreme North conditions," the press release noted.

The tests will involve army all-terrain vehicles, two-section crawler personnel carriers, special wheeled vehicles on extremely low pressure tires, upgraded versions of Trecol all-terrain vehicles, as well as revamped two-section personnel carriers from the DT-10PM and DT-30PM family. Expedition members will also study the performance of advanced container-type vehicle bodies and inflatable rapid-assembly framework tents acting as habitation modules and improvised automotive repair shops for maintaining crawler vehicles, stationary and portable ice-thickness gauges, new water purification and desalination units and medical equipment.