Arctic satellite system halted by sanctions

The first part of the Aktika system was to be taken into operation already in 2015, but that time schedule is now postponed.

According to Sergey Lemeshevsky, General Director of the Lavochkin system development company, the first satellite will be launched only in 2017. The subsequent satellites will be launched in 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively, newspaper Izvestia reports.

Originally, the first satellite was to be launched already in November this year.

The reason for the postponment is Western sanctions which are making key technological component unavailable, Lemeshevsky confirms. More than half of the equipment needed for the new system are import goods currently subjected to sanctions.

Russia in 2010 decided to develop the Arktika system and a contract with the Lavochkin research and development company was concluded in 2012. The system is to make navigation in Arctic waters safer and is much aimed at the national oil and gas industry.