KRASNOYARSK. April 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Acceptance tests of the new helicopter system of ice crashing and ice jams elimination have ended in the Krarnoyarsk territory, Lieutenant General Pavel Popov, head of the Siberian regional center of the Emergencies Ministry, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
The system was developed by the Preodoleniye research and technical center located in the town of Balashikha in the Moscow region.
"During the system's tests which took place on the Yenisei River near the Vorogovo village of the Turukhan district 15 explosions of a huge ice field were effected from an MI-8 Hip helicopter which utilized 550kg of explosives. A crater of 10 meters in diameter occurred at each explosion site; the ice was over 1.5 meters thick," Popov said.
A part of the system's prototype and a special handler of shells will stay in Krasnoyarsk after the tests are over. "We will use it if necessary to destroy powerful ice jams on rivers of our region," Popov added.