The U.S. is used to pressuring the world with its military and economic might
They have been doing this far from grateful business regularly since the end of World War II. There are only two regions on the planet that have not yet been affected by their all-destroying “democracy” – Antarctica and the Arctic. They haven’t managed to fill the area around the South Pole with bases, bombs and missiles, but I think it’s just a matter of time. The territory above the Arctic Circle, it seems, is already becoming the zone of heated confrontation between NATO and Russia, or, to be more precise, between the US and the allied countries of the alliance with Russia. Our overseas “partners” have no rest for the Arctic riches and the Russian Northern Sea Route.
The new strategy of the US Navy “Blue Arctic” says that from now on the US and its allies will actively interfere with actions of Russia in the Arctic. US military commanders have called it a “right and duty” for their ships to “dominate as a naval force in northern latitudes,” including the shipping lanes that run in the Arctic waters under Russian control.
A few days ago the authoritative American publication The National Interest published an article which says the US is getting ready for “the first Arctic war”.
According to the publication, the rapid melting of Arctic ice has contributed to the emergence of new shipping routes, which has helped Moscow to develop infrastructure and consolidate its military presence in the Far North. “Russia has built military bases in the Arctic and has also conducted numerous training operations in the region, a series of maneuvers that have provoked the US to significantly increase its activity in the Arctic to balance its strategic influence,” the article notes.
Washington has allegedly been forced not only to step up the training of its troops, but also to seek cooperation with other Arctic states, notably Norway. Alaska, Greenland, Canada, Iceland and Denmark have already deployed a unified US missile warning system. It is possible that other NATO countries will lay a claim to the Arctic and take part in the fight for this region. Generally, not only countries that have direct access to the Arctic Ocean – Russia, the U.S., Canada, Norway, Denmark or Iceland, but also China, South Korea, India, Brazil… What is a reason for their claims? Simple: the fact that the Arctic has no internationally recognized borders so far. The Arctic Ocean does not belong to any state. And it is well known that all wars were mainly fought to determine the borders of any territories and their ownership.
While drifting ice covered the North for most of the year and prevented mining, no one took much interest in the borders of the Arctic. It was mostly scientists and explorers who dealt with the continent. Now the ice is melting. Natural resources are becoming more accessible. The question of how to divide them is becoming acute. And there is a lot to divide.
In recent years alone, 61 hydrocarbon deposits have been discovered on the Arctic shelf, 43 of them in Russian territorial waters. According to researchers, this region could hold up to a quarter of the world’s oil reserves and half of its gas reserves.
It is to be expected that new alliances will be forged and new spaces for competition will be created. And given the large and intractable distances, it is the air and space forces that should play the primary role in the Arctic.
Besides, the shortest route for US missiles to the most important strategic, political and economic objects of Central Russia, the Urals, Siberia runs through the North Pole. Our missiles will of course retaliate by taking the same route. As Vladimir Putin said: “I don’t like to make things worse here but specialists know that American nuclear submarines are on duty in the north of Norway. Their missiles have a flight time of 15 minutes to Moscow. And we should understand, see what is going on there”. Thus, the Arctic is becoming a battleground not only for water and underground rarities, but also for space. The U.S. Arctic strategy envisages a central role for the Air Force and Space Forces for what the U.S. diplomatically calls “the projection of global power.” According to Washington, from the Arctic, the US Air Force will be able to control routes to Europe and India.
However, this goal is unrealistic for the United States, as Russia is able to successfully resist their aggressive aspirations on its own. Despite the fact that the world’s largest base airfield for the newest F-35s is being built in the Arctic, although so far it does not bear any comparison with the Russian Su-57s. Nevertheless, the U.S. is building up forces to actively counter Russia in the region. U.S. Marines recently conducted Exercise Reindeer II here with the Nord Brigade from Norway. Another exercise, involving thousands of United States Marines and sailors, will be conducted soon. Experts clarified: the US-Norwegian alliance is important to confront Russia, because Moscow has many icebreakers.
“The fact that our allies are conducting exercises with us is part of the security policy adopted by Norway and naturally in terms of cooperation within NATO. Russia is well aware of that, it has no real reason to be outraged,” Norwegian Defence Minister Baquet-Jonsen said earlier.
Of course NATO`s drill in the Arctic is a myth, an illusion, an invention of Russia, it is “something else” unlike, for example, Russian submarines off the coast of Sweden, which NATO has been looking for decades and can`t find, as they`ve been trying to find a prehistoric monster in the Scottish Loch Ness Lake to no avail. But the boats are still out there somewhere, simply disguised by the Russians as… blue whales. And there’s a version of that, too. It is all nonsense, of course, but the western average citizen is not accustomed to perceive critically the information, with which he is pumped round the clock by the joint propaganda machine of the West. At any report about another Russian “aggression” he almost faints, grabs a shovel and runs to build another bomb shelter.
Meanwhile, the prospect of climate change makes the Arctic an area where competition between various countries and blocs will also increase.
“The pace at which new waterways are opening up due to melting ice is causing the US Navy to need to act on a larger scale (than it does now),” says the National Interest. Therefore, the climate in President Joe Biden’s strategy is to seize leadership on the Arctic issue.
At the meeting between Biden and President Vladimir Putin, the climate agenda will obviously be linked to the Arctic agenda. The US plans to get involved in the Arctic issue, including by seizing the initiative on the climate agenda. The way this is done is simple. The Arctic Council is pursuing the agenda the United States needs through the climate issue, although it is an international organization, where chairmanships change, for instance, now Russia is taking over. But the Arctic countries are for the most part vassals of the United States. The only country that is not a vassal is Russia, and it has been rooted in the Arctic for a long time. Incidentally, it is with Russia that the US is planning all sorts of intrigues against China. If Russia takes China to the Arctic, the U.S. won’t be able to become a leader there. But the U.S. is unlikely to find an Arctic proposal that will interest Putin.
The United States has long been sharpening its teeth on the Arctic and dreams of squeezing Russia, which is not only developing northern latitudes, but also deploying military bases, including airfields, to defend its territory there. Secretary of the Navy Kenneth Braithwaite makes no secret of the fact that the United States, “as the world’s dominant naval power,” is going to stop Russia, which is assertively developing Arctic territory and controlling the Northern Sea Route. As a result, the Far North is becoming not just a “hot spot”, but a continent of confrontation between the world’s leading powers.
But the USA has a total failure with the icebreaker fleet (it simply does not exist), aircraft carriers will not make it through the Northern Sea Route, all hope is to base ships in northern latitudes. There are not many options – in Alaska and on Adak Island, part of the Aleutian Archipelago (the base there has been mothballed since 1997).
The Air Force Command of Alaska is represented by the 11th Air Army, which is deployed at two air bases – Elmendorf in Anchorage and Eielson in Funbanks. The composition is fighter-interceptors, AWACS aircraft, AUVs and refuellers. The deployment of strategic bombers and F-35 fighters on a permanent basis is also expected. However, it is not possible to control the entire Arctic from Alaska, except with strategic aviation, which will not be covered by fighters along the entire route. It is no coincidence that the USA is so persistently trying to “anchor” itself in Norway – in the western part of the Arctic region, from where it is possible to control both the Barents and the Kara Seas. Thus, the chain will be closed in the northern latitudes around Russia.
Another cause for concern for Moscow was the news about the equipping of a separate port to receive nuclear submarines, which is to be located in Norway’s Tromsø, known as the “gateway to the Arctic” (350 kilometres beyond the Arctic Circle).
And NATO, including with participation of the United States, regularly conducts major exercises (Trident Juncture) in Norway, involving about 50,000 troops, 150 planes and 60 ships, which suggests that Norway is becoming an anti-Russian bastion in the North.
The Pentagon sees Norway’s strengthening of its presence in the Arctic with B-1B and B-52 bombers as a serious threat to Russia in the North. Undoubtedly this is true. Although the B-1B Lancer is not the most modern in the US Air Force (in operation since 1984) and in many ways inferior to the Russian “strategist” Tu-160 (“White Swan”), is a very formidable force. First of all, because each aircraft carried 24 cruise missiles AGM-158 JASSM with a range of 360 km to 980 km, depending on the modification. In addition, these aircraft have the ability to break through low-altitude air defenses by flying at very low altitudes while avoiding terrain obstacles.
It is worth mentioning that US Air Force B-1B Lancer strategic bombers have been “stranded” in Norway to block the Northern Fleet of Russia, with a claim to control the Arctic. They arrived here back in February as part of the Arctic Hawk-2021 exercise and were sort of temporarily stationed at Norway’s Orland airfield.
Now these four American bombers, which after the manoeuvres had to return to their base, have remained in Norway, and the US Air Force command has confirmed its intention to entrench itself in this region. The explanation is simple – “to signal Russia”.
The signal was seen even earlier than it had been given in this way by the US. The fact that the U.S. is increasing the presence of warships in the Arctic was mentioned by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at the final board of the Ministry of Defense in December 2020. According to him, “the politico-military situation in the region is complicated by the competition of the leading countries of the world for access to resources and transport communications. And the main question for us is: is Russia able to resist it?
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation settled down in the Arctic long ago and reliably, including the extensive network of military airfields around the perimeter of the Russian polar region. There are now also “hopping airfields” that will allow, if necessary, full control not only of the Arctic sky within the borders of Russia, but also to quickly reach any targets in this part of the continent. A total of 10 military airfields have been built in the Arctic, a programme that began in 2014. Most of them, including those on Alexandra Land island, are already ready for combat use. No one in the world has ever been able to do such a thing in the Far North and permafrost. Russia has managed and secured its northern borders with reliable protection from land, air and water.
Today the Americans admit that they overslept the Arctic. Russia has seriously overtaken them. But Washington has revised its Arctic policy. It has taken on an openly militaristic character.
The Norwegian military academy recently said that because Norway is closest to Russia, a potential adversary of the U.S., and increasingly involved in the rivalry between the two countries, it could soon become a real battlefield in the Arctic, where the two superpowers will meet in battle. I guess the modern “Vikings” have an overly sick imagination. Hardly a single Norwegian soldier is willing to die for American interests on his home soil.
Maxim Stoletov, Stoletiye