I read about this last week, and seemed a bit pointless. Yes, a drop from very high altitude. But wouldn't be just about as stealthy to send your commandos in on a raft from a submarine? Also, what sort of threats does Russia imagine it's confronting in the Arctic? The armored bears from The Golden Compass?
I'm not an expert at all in this subject, but I think a lot of these actions are a way of pushing forward Russia's sphere of influence over the Arctic.
Access to oil (hopefully something of long term diminishing value) and future shipping lanes.
It’s also Russia’s border with the USA and Canada so would be the place to enter from if you want to try to take out the DEW stations (yeah, sure. But the route to take). Though if that were something I wanted to do I’d either use a sub to drop the, off or launch cruise missiles from subs.
I wonder what the facility in the background of the photos is and why it wasn't airbrushed out. It looks like some kind radio communications station, VLF for subs?
