Three Russian Submarines Surface and Break Arctic Ice during Drills

Three Russian navy submarines punched their way through several feet of sea ice in the Arctic to surface simultaneously within a few hundred feet of each other — one of the first times the tricky naval maneuver has been achieved.

A video released by Russia's Ministry of Defence shows the conning towers of the three subs breaking through a continuous sheet of floating ice near the Franz Josef Land archipelago, in the Arctic Ocean north of the Barents Sea.

The subs are taking part in Umka-2021 (meaning "polar bear" in the Siberian Chukchi language) — an expedition to the region that involves 600 military and civilian personnel, including staff from the Russian Geographical Society, a non-governmental organization established in the 19th century.

The three submarines broke through 5-foot-thick (1.5 meters) ice to surface within 1,000 feet (300 m) of each other at the same time, "for the first time in the history of the Navy," Russian navy commander Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov told Russia's President Vladimir Putin in a televised video call. 

The conditions in the region were between minus 13 and minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 25 and minus 30 degrees Celsius), with winds gusting at up to 70 mph (110 km/h), the admiral reported.

Surfacing a submarine through thick sea ice is no easy feat. According to a 2018 article in Popular Mechanics about American submarines in the Arctic, bursting through the ice requires careful preparation.

Nuclear-powered missile submarines usually try to stay hidden beneath Arctic ice because it makes them effectively invisible to enemies. But when they do have to come to the surface, a sub commander will first try to find nearby patches of open water — such as a "lead" or "polynya" — where they can...