Severomorsk Naval Base (Vayenga)

Severomorsk is the main base of the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet and the fleet's principal administrative centre. It lies on the rocky eastern shore of the Kola Bay, an inlet of the Barents Sea on the Kola Peninsula, about 25 km northeast of Murmansk, to which it is linked by road and rail. The site is north of the Arctic Circle in the permafrost zone.

The base houses the headquarters and command of the Northern Fleet. The surrounding closed administrative-territorial formation takes in the associated military settlements of Safonovo, Safonovo-1, Roslyakovo, Severomorsk-3 and Shchukozero, several of which hold naval aviation and support installations. Ammunition storage sites for the fleet, including surface-to-air missile stocks, are located on the outskirts of the town.

Port facilities are supplemented by ship repair enterprises in the town. Severomorsk holds the largest dry dock on the Kola Peninsula. The naval airfield at Vayenga-1, in the adjacent bay, was built before the Second World War and remains part of the complex of aviation facilities in the area; Roslyakovo, incorporated into the Severomorsk urban district, is a ship repair location. Access to the town is restricted: by presidential decree of 26 November 1996 Severomorsk was designated a closed administrative-territorial entity on account of its status as a naval base.

The bay was selected in 1933 as one of the basing areas for the newly formed Soviet Northern Fleet, then centred on Polyarny, and military construction proceeded at Vayenga from 1934 until it was halted in August 1941. Work resumed after the war, and the existing facilities led to Vayenga being chosen as the fleet's main base; the headquarters and command of the Northern Fleet moved there from Polyarny on 1 September 1947. The settlement received town status on 18 April 1951 and was renamed Severomorsk.