Putin’s fighting snowmobile

Russia displayed a new fighting snowmobile in its annual Victory Day parade in Red Square yesterday, as it seeks a military push into the Arctic.

The snowmobiles were part of an array of new war machines demonstrated at the parade, including the Su-57 stealth fighter jet, the ‘‘dagger’’ hypersonic missile, unmanned aerial vehicles and a robotic tank.

White camouflage trucks emblazoned with the polar bear emblem of Russia’s Arctic forces carried the TTM 190-40 snowmobiles, which can operate in temperatures as low as -50C, past President Vladimir Putin and other attendees standing on top of Lenin’s tomb.

Guests of honour included Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, the Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic, and Steven Seagal, the American B-movie actor.

With a speed of 65kmh and a range of 500km, the snowmobile keeps its two-man crew warm in an enclosed cabin and can defend itself with a 7.62mm PKP machinegun mounted on the back.

While countries such as the United States and Sweden have conducted military exercises with snowmobiles, Canada is the only other country known to have developed military sledges, specifically an electric ‘‘stealth snowmobile’’.

As climate change rapidly reduces sea ice, Russia has been developing Arctic oil and gas reserves, which could be worth up to US$35 trillion (NZ$50 trillion), and building atomic icebreakers for an expected increase in shipping through the Northeast Passage.

China is also increasing its Arctic presence by financing liquefied natural gas projects and has announced a ‘‘Polar Silk Road’’ initiative.

– Telegraph Group