Arctic

Awesome moment U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS Toledo smashes its way through thick ice while on exercises in the Arctic Ocean

This is the awe-inspiring moment that a U.S. submarine broke through several feet of ice to surface in the Arctic Ocean during a training drill.

The USS Toledo is taking part in the biennial Ice Exercise - a three-week drill to assess operation readiness in the Arctic region.   

The ice where the fast-attack nuclear submarine broke through the surface was around 16 inches thick.

In a mezmeising video taken earlier this week, the Los Angeles class submarine breaks through a sheet of ice covering the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, before coming to a stop at the surface.   

Sailors are then seen coming out of the hatch of the vessel while others clean ice off the massive rig.    

'The Arctic is a potential strategic corridor - between Indo-Pacific, Europe, and the U.S. homeland - for expanded competition. The Submarine Force must maintain readiness by exercising in Arctic conditions to ensure they can protect national security interests and maintain favorable balances of power in the Indo-Pacific and Europe if called upon,' said Vice Adm. Daryl Caudle, Commander, Submarine Forces. 

Arctic

Researchers find new reason Arctic is warming so fast

The Arctic has experienced the warming effects of global climate change faster than any other region on the planet. Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have developed a new theory aided by computer simulations and observations that helps explain why this occurs.

A team led by Scripps researcher Emma Beer observed the changes taking place in the Arctic Ocean, which is largely covered by sea ice for most of the year. There, an unusual situation exists where the water is warm at depth and cold near the surface. The deeper waters are fed by the relatively warm Pacific and Atlantic oceans, whereas the near-surface waters are in contact with sea ice and remain close to the freezing point. Heat flows upward from the warmer water to the colder water.

The scientists found that the deeper water is getting still warmer as a result of climate change, but the near-surface water below the sea ice remains close to the freezing point. The increasing difference in temperature leads to a greater upward flow of heat.

Arctic

NATO NORTH? BUILDING A ROLE FOR NATO IN THE ARCTIC

Russia’s growing military assertiveness — in Ukraine, Syria, and beyond — has sparked fears over its intentions in the Arctic. The pace of Russian bomber patrols, submarine expeditions, and firing exercises in the Arctic are all at levels not seen since the depths of the Cold War. A growing chorus is calling for NATO to take on a greater role in the Arctic to counter Russian aggression.

But the gathering storm over the Arctic is not just about Russian military activity, and framing it as such is dangerously short-sighted. Unfortunately, just as relations between Russia and the West are deteriorating, the Arctic region is undergoing a terrifying physical transformation. Arctic warming is racing ahead of our best models, burning through the system at a pace that is hard to comprehend. Parts of coastal Alaska are eroding 20 meters per year; the center of the pollock fishery in the Bering Sea is moving north 18 miles annually; and mass die-offs of seabirds, fish, and marine mammals are occurring. The Arctic is undergoing jarring changes in environmental, political, military, and economic domains — all at the same time. This transformation threatens to upend decades of stability. In this state of flux, any mishap or misunderstanding could generate enough friction to spark a serious crisis or even conflict.

Arctic

A Warmer Arctic Makes for Hotter Geopolitics

The Arctic Circle is technically defined as all the space located at a latitude of roughly 66.34 north, and where there is at least one 24-hour period of both total daylight and total darkness per year. Others consider the region as anywhere north of the tree line, or where average summer temperatures never rise above 10 degrees Celsius. But in the simplest terms, the Arctic is a donut that sits atop the Earth; an enclosed sea surrounded by frosted land.

Natural resources remain the primary driver of economic and development activity in the Arctic. The region is estimated to contain 20-25 percent of untapped global oil and gas reserves, as well as deposits of rare earth elements and other, strategically important minerals including platinum, palladium, uranium and cobalt. While no commercial fishing currently takes place in the High Arctic, fish stocks around the periphery are already exploited by nearby countries. Timber, coal and animal products are also valuable resources for the small local populations in the near-Arctic.

Arctic

Refreezing the Arctic: How to bring the ice back with geoengineering

THE Arctic is in a death spiral. The top of our world is heating up faster than anywhere else on the planet, setting new records for the speed and area of ice melt. We are on track this year to have one of the lowest summer sea ice coverages so far. It is a huge problem, because what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic.

What’s more, the Greenland ice sheet, which alone contains enough water to raise global sea levels by 6 metres, is disappearing. The frozen Arctic soil and sediment, or permafrost, is melting, releasing more and more carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. This year, vast wildfires in the peatlands of Siberiahave blazed for more than a month, and the Arctic warming is playing havoc with weather systems in the northern hemisphere too. But if you prefer to think simply in terms of money, the economic impact of unmitigated Arctic warming by the end of this century was recently estimated to be $67 trillion. As US congressman Jerry McNerney says: “When it comes to the Arctic, we’re in deep shit.”

You’ve heard the slogans: we are living in a time of climate emergency. But it is no good declaring an emergency without summoning help. So here it is: let’s refreeze the Arctic. There are several imaginative ideas to manipulate its climate system to get the ice back. They won’t be cheap or easy, but some researchers argue that the crisis in the north is …

Arctic

Pentagon warns Chinese submarines in the Arctic are building a 'Polar Silk Road'

Deepening Chinese activities in the Arctic region could pave the way for a strengthened military presence, including the deployment of submarines to act as deterrents against nuclear attack, the Pentagon said in a report released on Thursday.

The assessment is included in the U.S. military's annual report to Congress on China's armed forces and follows Beijing's publication of its first official Arctic policy white paper in June.

In that paper, China outlined plans to develop shipping lanes opened up by global warming to form a "Polar Silk Road" - building on President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road Initiative.

China, despite being a non-Arctic state, is increasingly active in the polar region and became an observer member of the Arctic Council in 2013. That has prompted concerns from Arctic states over Beijing's long-term strategic objectives, including possible military deployments.

Arctic

Military Drills in Arctic Aim to Counter Russia, but the First Mission Is to Battle the Cold

After finishing a training drill on surviving the bitter cold, the soldiers gathered around Ranger Debbie Iqaluk to hear about an inescapable fact of life in the high Arctic: The ice is melting despite the frigid temperatures.

And that means the Russians are coming.

Her retelling of how she watched as an enormous iceberg fractured, just a few feet from the military base here, was riveting. It is one thing to be told constantly that the melting polar ice cap has opened up the Arctic, disappearing what used to be an impenetrable barrier between North America and Russia. It is quite another to see it firsthand.

The iceberg took five years to melt, but by 2018 it was gone, taken over by a sea that with each year is melting earlier in the season. That has brought Russia right to Canada’s doorstep, cutting into the “Fortress North America” concept that has long comforted military planners on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Arctic

Russia’s Arctic North Sea Route

Russia has developed new rules for the passage of all foreign ships, including warships and merchant vessels navigating through Russia’s Northern Sea Route (NSR). The need for such new “rules of the road” has arisen due to recent intensification of naval interest both military and commercial, and activities by various state players in the Arctic. According to Russia the purpose of these new rules are to maintain control over shipping, and the environment.

The new rules call for all ships and vessels from other countries to notify a Russian monitoring service 45 days before they plan navigating through the NSR. They must report the name of the ship, the route and the timing of navigation, name and military rank (if a warship) of the captain as well as the main parameters of the craft, such as displacement, draft and engine characteristics.

In addition, the regulations will oblige all foreign ships and vessels to take on board Russian pilots when navigating the NSR. This to handle any potential emergency or complication due to changeable ice situations, Russian icebreakers will also be available to provide assistance.

Arctic

Northern border along Arctic, not southern, is what worries NORAD leaders

The opening of the Arctic and the stirring of Russian and Chinese interest along the U.S. and Canadian northern borders is a major worry for the top officer at U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy told senators Tuesday that geography is no longer the buffer that it once was.

“[China and Russia] both have … established a noticeably stronger foothold in the Arctic along the northern approaches to the United States and Canada,” O’Shaughnessy told the Senate Armed Services Committee Feb. 26. “As a result, the strategic value of the Arctic as our first line of defense has re-emerged and USNORTHCOM and NORAD are taking active measures to ensure our ability to detect, detract and defeat potential threats in this region.”

Focusing on the northern border also aligns more with the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which singles out China as an emerging competitor and Russia as revisionist power.

One of the focal points for Arctic concern is Alaska; many intercepts of Russian aircraftare made near its borders.

Arctic

Expanding 2-Ship US Icebreaker Fleet Becomes Top National Security Priority

The US fleet of just two working icebreakers is in urgent need of expansion to maintain defense readiness, enforce treaties and facilitate the movement of goods and personnel through ice-clogged waterways of the Arctic and Antarctic region, US Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft said in a press release.

"This is the highest priority for us right now," Zukunft said in the release on Thursday. "It’s the one area where we don’t have redundancy in our national inventory when it comes to icebreakers."

The Arctic region has seen many changes since the Coast Guard released its Arctic Strategy in 2013, such as receding sea ice and increased human activity, which includes a larger Russian footprint in the region, the release noted.

The Coast Guard, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, currently has two operational icebreakers, the Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star and the Healy, the release said. USGC Mackinaw is the third icebreaker in service, but it operates in Great Lakes Area.

By comparison, Russia has at least 40 operating icebreakers and at least ten more under construction, according to published reports.

Arctic

Russia is planning to build an Arctic military research center to further its polar buildup

The Russian Defense Ministry, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, is planning to build a military research and testing center in the Arctic, Russian state-owned media outlet Sputnik reported on Friday.

The research center will be used for developing weapons and military logistics designed for the Arctic region, according to Lt. Gen. Igor Makushev, head of the Military-Scientific Committee of the Russian Armed Forces.

"On the orders of the president [Vladimir Putin], and in the framework of the development of the Arctic zone, it is planned to establish in 2017 an Arctic research and testing scientific center with branches in Arkhangelsk, Priozersk and St. Petersburg," Makushev said.

Over the last decade, there has been a land grab in the Arctic, where global warming is melting polar ice and revealing an abundance of natural resources, including an estimated 22% of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves.

Arctic

No indication of Russian aggression in Arctic, national security experts say

A panel of national security experts says that while Russia has built up its military on its side of the Arctic, there is no evidence of Russian aggression there.

Julia Gourley is the senior Arctic official at the U.S. State Department. During a briefing of congressional staff in Washington, D.C., she said it appears Russia is preparing to protect its economic interests. She says all countries would do the same.

But Sherri Goodman, a former Pentagon official, says the U.S. should pay attention for any changes in the way Russia operates in the Arctic.

The Alaska Public Radio Network reported at Russia has submitted a claim for more territory in the Arctic based on how far it says its continental shelf extends.

The U.S. is mapping its continental shelf in the region.

Arctic

Russia’s Military Sophistication in the Arctic Sends Echoes of the Cold War

When the U.S. wants to learn what Russia is doing in the Arctic, it often turns to the Norwegian military, which has been conducting operations for decades from this Arctic town amid the fiords.

These days, it isn’t the volume of Russian military activity in the region that concerns Norway and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies. Adm. Haakon Bruun-Hanssen, Norway’s chief of defense, says Russian military activity in the Barents Sea has grown in recent years but still pales in comparison to Cold War levels.

What concerns him, he says, is the increased sophistication Norway is seeing in the far north, as the Kremlin modernizes its armed forces. NATO forces retain an upper hand in conventional equipment and prowess, he said, but Russia is catching up with new sensors, submarines and capabilities.

Arctic

Russia to Finish Building Military Bases Off Arctic Coast by Year-End

Russia will finish building autonomous military bases in the Franz Josef Land and New Siberian Islands in the Arctic by the end of this year, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.

"This year, we will finish constructing unique military towns of the closed-cycle type in the archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and New Siberian Islands," Shoigu said at a ministerial meeting.

The defense minister said the military was building networks of airfields and monitoring stations in the Arctic outposts to improve the nation’s air defenses.

Russia's northernmost archipelagos stretch over thousands of miles off its northwestern coast in the Barents and Kara seas, as well as in its Far Eastern maritime territories between the Laptev and the East Siberian seas.

Arctic

Russia’s Northern Sea Route Ambitions

Earlier this month, on April 19, the State Commission on the development of the Arctic Regions convened in Moscow to establish a single company to oversee all the logistics operations in the Russian Far North (Arctic.ru, April 19). The move came amidst news reports showing little success, to date, in developing either the infrastructure or the cargo flows on the famous Northern Sea Route (NSR) along Russia’s Arctic coastline (The Independent Barents Observer, April 16).

For years, the NSR was presented by Moscow as a prospective alternative for shipping goods from East Asia to Europe. Russian officials argued that this wa­ter­way is much shorter than the “southern” route via the Malaccan and Bab-el-Mandeb straits and through the Suez Canal (7,600 versus 11,000 nautical miles). Goods traveling from Yokohama to Hamburg along the NSR could be mo­ved faster (30–35 days, compared to around 45 days if shipped along traditional sea lanes). This may be true, but the competing southern route still has many advantages—year-round access, multiple large ports along the way, easy procedures at the Suez Canal, etc.—while the NRS itself currently looks barely suited for modern shipping.

Arctic

Russia Isn't Trying to Start a War in the Arctic — It's Just Keeping Out the Riffraff

Since 1996, Russia, along with the US and six other Arctic states, has been a member of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum that deals with economic and climate issues facing the Arctic states and the region's indigenous people. Russia, for its part, has acted like a good neighbor during its time in the council, working to prevent oil pollution and helping to promote scientific cooperation.

"One of our priorities in the Arctic is to keep balance between the economic activity and the preservation of the unique environment, respect for the culture, and traditional way of life of indigenous peoples," Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week at a meeting between Arctic Council members in Russia. "And, of course, we have consistently advocated the strengthening of cooperation with member states of the Arctic Council in all directions."

Arctic

Freezing U.S. out of the Arctic

U.S. national security leadership has put Arctic issues on the back burner for decades, focusing on global hot spots in the Middle East, Asia and Russia.

But the ice pack on the roof of the world is melting, and a surge of economic and foreign military activity is forcing Washington to take a hard look at how to fund polar priorities under an already strained federal budget.

While Russia is building air bases and search-and-rescue facilities in the Arctic and Chinese ships entered U.S. waters off the coast of Alaska, the U.S. lags at least 10 years behind where it needs to be in the Arctic, said Adm. Paul Zukunft, commandant of the Coast Guard.

Arctic

Diplomacy at the Top of the World

Geopolitical tensions between Russia and the West have been high in recent years, but there remain areas where constructive cooperation and dialogue remain possible. These include not only acute questions like Iran’s nuclear program, but also long-term issues critical to the Arctic region, such as maritime safety, energy development, responses to oil spills, and fisheries management.

Arctic

An International Race for the Arctic? Try a Slow, Science-Driven Crawl

You’d be forgiven for thinking a new cold war is underway in the Arctic. Judging by appearances—from presidential proclamations to front-page screamers—it seems we are deep into an arms race of naval exercises and icebreaker ships, and that any day now the winner will be announced. That country, the popular narrative suggests, will then become the oil-soaked Saudi Arabia of the frozen north, and the losers will hang their heads.

Arctic

U.S. Sub Takes On Russia in Santa’s Backyard

President Barack Obama was recently in Alaska for three days to highlight the dangers of global climate change. The presidential tour included a stopover in an Inuit town north of the Arctic Circle that’s slowly succumbing to the rising sea.

But another high-profile American visitor preceded Obama to the Arctic region… on a mission of military might. In a rare feat of high-tech prowess, the U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine USS Seawolf spent several weeks under the Arctic ice cap during a six-month deployment beginning in March and ending August 21.