The Centrospas State Central Airmobile Rescue Unit of Russian Emergencies Ministry

The Centrospas State Central Airmobile Rescue Unit of Russian Emergencies Ministry was established by the order of the Government of the Russian Federation of 13 March 1992.

The main objective of the unit is the rapid response to emergency situations, caused by natural and man-caused accidents, helping people, as well as saving production capabilities.

The Centrospas Unit operates around the clock. The headquarters of the unit is situated near the Ramenskoye Airfield. The most advanced special equipment at disposal of the unit allows carrying out efficient search and rescue and recovery operations following earthquakes, floods, man-caused disasters and etc.

The unit provides round-the-clock preparedness of rescuers, transport vehicles and equipment for rapid and efficient actions aimed at rescuing of human lives, saving of production capabilities in any part of the Earth. Preparedness to respond to an emergency situation on vehicles is 30 minutes, on helicopter is one hour, and on an airplane is 3 hours.

Objectives and activities of the Unit

The Centrospas Unit was established in order to fulfill emergency response functions set to the Emergencies Ministry of Russia.

The Unit’s objective is to respond rapidly to natural and man-caused disasters, to mitigate them, to save human lives, to recover material and cultural values, to minimize the damage done to the environment

The Centrospas Unit is included into:

Forces of the Russian National Emergency Humanitarian Response Corps (by the Order No.1010 of the Government of the Russian Federation of 13 October 1995).

Federal constant preparedness forces of the Single State Disaster Management System (by Order No.924 of the Government of the Russian Federation of 3 August 1996)

Head of Centrospas Unit Kirill Borodin:

“I’m proud of people, working in the team. We have the best specialists here. I have known many of them for more than 20 years, we are all friends here, and we can say that we christened each others’ children. By the way, many of our specialists’ children are serving in the team now, we have several dynasties here. When you rescue people, you feel useful. This spirit, adrenalin keeps the people in the team. When you love what you do, you will keep doing it”.

The Unit performs the following functions at the expense of the federal budget:The Team performs the following functions at the expense of the federal budget:

• Round-the-clock duty and maintaining constant preparedness of rescuers and other Team’s specialists, including the rescue equipment, transport vehicles, communication and normal-functioning facilities for rapid response to emergencies;
• Rapid deployment of rescuers and other Team’s specialists;
• Acts as customs applicant during customs registration of the equipment, temporary brought in to respond to an emergency abroad;
• Organizing and carrying out top-priority search and rescue, recovery, preventive and other emergency operations in emergency areas in accordance with the Rescue and other emergency operations certificate issued to the Tsentrospas Team, including deployment of UAVs for reconnaissance in emergency areas; conducting of operations featuring air rescue technologies, as well as airmobile insertion of rescuers;
• Deployment in emergency areas and setting up communications, management, normal-functioning facilities and maintenance of rescue equipment in the field conditions;
• Evacuation of the injured by helicopters and airplanes;
• Medical activities in accordance with the issued license, including: rendering of first aid in emergency situations to the injured, deployment and setting up of the Team’s airmobile hospital; medical follow-up of search and rescue teams on duty, engaged into drills, exercises and relief operations; provision of preventive medical support and after-operation rehabilitation of rescuers and other Team’s specialists;
• Carrying out trial operation and testing of rescue and recovery equipment prototypes, including development and manufacturing of accessories necessary for testing;
• Organizing of primary training and professional training of the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s rescuers, firefighters and other specialists of organizations, controlled by the Emergencies Ministry, including internship, seminars, theoretical and practical exercises, drills;
• Professional training of the Team’s employees in rescuing and certification of rescuers to the First Class Rescuer Degree.

The Unit has the following services:

• Center for internship and professional training for the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s rescuers and specialists of the search and rescue units;
• Center for testing and certification of rescue equipment and technologies;
• Service Center for maintenance and repair of the Emergencies Ministry’s rescue equipment and instruments;

International activities

International activities are carried out in accordance with the Emergency Ministry’s yearly International Cooperation Plans;

The Tsentrospas Unit has been certified by INSARAG (Search And Rescue Advisory Group) standards since 1 July 2011.

In 2016 the Tsentrospas Unit yet again proved its “heavy” class in the INSARAG system. There are less then two dozen of such units in the world. This is why rescuers from other countries and young specialists undergo training programs and education based on the Tsentrospas guidelines.

The Tsentrospas Unit has airmobile hospital at its disposal. In 2016 the hospital was included into the Global Emergency Medical Team Registry of the World Health Organization. This proves that the Centropas’ airmobile hospital meets all WHO standards and that the Centrospas specialists are ready to render highly qualified medical aid in emergency areas. In December 2016, the airmobile hospital was deployed in Syria. The Russian specialists rendered high-tech medical treatment to more than 1,500 people, who were affected by terrorists’ shelling. The Russian Emergencies Ministry donated the airmobile hospital to the Syrian doctors upon ending the humanitarian operation.

Vehicles and equipment

The Centrospas Unit has modern rescue and recovery equipment at its disposal, which includes transportation vehicles, rigid modular boats, inflatable boats, diving equipment (diving suits, one-piece diving suits, Falcon unmanned submarines), equipment for dealing with emergencies caused by chemicals (isolating suits, breathing apparatuses, degassing complexes, chemical and radiation contamination control equipment). The Unit also has different kinds of rescue equipment (hydraulic, pneumatic), search equipment (radar, acoustic, video surveillance, GPS), insertion equipment (parachutes, P-7 multi-parachute insertion platforms, PGS-100 platforms), as well as communication equipment (mobile satellite communication, shortwave radio, ultra short band radio stations), stationary and mobile decompression systems and other equipment, which provides autonomous operation of the Unit.

The airmobile hospital is equipped with necessary equipment, including resuscitation modules for planes and helicopters for medical evacuation of the injured.

The Centrospas Unit uses unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor the emergency areas and conduct search operations.

Special capabilities

The Centrospas team uses unique Global Radius technology. The Russian Emergencies Ministry’s Ilyushin Il-76TD plane delivers MBB Bo 105 light helicopter to an emergency area to monitor the affected area and immediately assess the scale of an emergency, damage done to the environment and assess the scale of necessary relief operations. The Global Radius technology implies simplified flight path approvals and VISAs for rescuers in order to provide immediate dispatch of the team (3-hour readiness for take off). The Russian Emergencies Ministry can also deploy this technology in the emergency areas at the UN’s request.