The Russian Navy's Northern Fleet announced a missile battalion attached to its tactical group, armed with Bastion coastal defense systems and stationed on the Alexandra Land of the Franz Joseph Land archipelago in the Arctic, had passed a final check for the winter training period. A statement issued by the fleet's press office explained: "During the final check, the missile troops practiced going on alert, preparing the hardware and bringing it out of hangars, making a march and deploying Bastion launchers in a positioning area on the coast of the Barents Sea."