Russia's Northern Fleet has held a military exercise on the defense of a strategic industrial facility in the Arctic, said Captain 1st Rank Vadim Serga, head of the fleet's press service.

"The largest ever joint exercise of the Northern Fleet has been held in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The joint group of forces trained to defend a strategic facility in the Taimyr Peninsula. The drill involved live firing from missile and cannon artillery guns and standard firing practice," RIA Novosti reports, citing Captain Serga.

The officer said that the exercise included interoperability training and joint implementation of tasks by Arctic brigade units, tactical Air Borne companies and special operations units in Arctic conditions with support from aircraft and artillery and air landing from Mi-8 helicopters.

It was the second exercise of this kind held in Taimyr. According to Captain Serga, this time the exercise involved twice as many military personnel and equipment and also the first use of self-propelled and missile artillery. The exercise simulated the deployment of several subversive groups in the vicinity of a major facility, which are detected by an advance reconnaissance group who reported this information to the headquarters.