Zashchitnyy Kupol: Russia’s Protective Three-Ocean Dome along the Northern Sea Route — Redux. Part of the Northern Fleet's operational roles.

12 March 2026

In 2015 it was reported that Russia had plans to build 13 aerodromes and six cantonments in the Arctic. The string of new and refurbished bases between the  Atlantic and the Pacific via the Arctic Ocean was described by Northern Fleet commander Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov as a “protective ocean dome”.

In late 2019 Vice-Admiral Alexander Moiseyev confirmed that additional S-300 and S-400 systems would be deployed across the Russian Arctic to create a comprehensive anti-aircraft umbrella across the region.

By Robin Ashby, with additional material by Joseph E. Fallon

First published at Defence Viewpoints, 23rd March 2024. Revised and updated April 2026.

Summary: The Russian Baltic Fleet is the smallest and most constrained of Russia's four fleets. NATO's encirclement is now essentially complete following Finnish and Swedish accession, and the fleet's operational freedom in the open sea is severely curtailed. Yet the conventional analysis that this renders the Baltic Fleet strategically irrelevant misreads its purpose. Its utility is not blue-water combat but denial: the ability to mine the Danish Straits, threaten critical undersea infrastructure, and hold the Baltic littoral economies at risk from Kaliningrad's missile arsenal. Since 2024, Russia has demonstrated that warfare below the threshold of conventional conflict — conducted through shadow fleet vessels and infrastructure sabotage — extends the fleet's strategic reach far beyond its naval order of battle suggests.