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US Navy Plots Arctic Push
'Roadmap' details plans to enlarge fleet in northern waters
The U.S. navy is planning a massive push into the Arctic to defend national security, potential undersea riches and other maritime interests.
This picture provided by the US Navy on March 24, 2009 shows Los Angeles-class submarine USS Annapolis on the surface of the Arctic Ocean after breaking through one metre of ice on March 21, 2009 during Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2009. (MC1 Tiffini, M. Jones, AFP/Getty Images) An "Arctic roadmap" by the Department of the Navy details a five-year strategic plan to expand fleet operations into the North in anticipation that the frozen Arctic Ocean will be open water in summer by 2030.
While the plan talks diplomatically about "strong partnerships" with other Arctic nations, it is clear the U.S. is intent on seriously retooling its military presence and naval combat capabilities in a region increasingly seen as a potential flashpoint as receding polar ice allows easier access.
"This opening of the Arctic may lead to increased resource development, research, tourism, and could reshape the global transportation system. These developments offer opportunities for growth, but also are potential sources of competition and conflict for access and natural resources," says the 33-page document, signed by Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert, vice-chief of Naval Operations.
"While the United States has stable relationships with other Arctic nations, the changing environment and competition for resources may contribute to increasing tension, or, conversely, provide opportunities for co-operative solutions," it says.
"Action items" in the planning document include:
- Assessment of current and required capability to execute undersea warfare, expeditionary warfare, strike warfare, strategic sealift (and) regional security co-operation.
- (Assessing) current and predicted threats in order to determine the most dangerous and most likely threats in the Arctic region in 2010, 2015 and 2025.
- Focus on threats to U.S. national security, although threats to maritime safety and security may also be considered.
- Identify the relevant actors concurrent to the forecast time frame.
- Determine incentives and motivations for each actor.
If the recent surfacing of a U.S. submarine near the North Pole left any doubt, the navy's roadmap makes it clear the U.S. and other nations will increasingly flex military muscle in the resource-rich region, says a specialist on Canada's northern security.
"The Arctic is transforming and everyone else gets it and they're not going to go away," Rob Huebert, associate director at the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, said Friday.
But behind a public façade that promotes international Arctic co-operation, Huebert says, "if you read the document carefully you'll see a dual language, one where they're saying, 'We've got to start working together' ... and (then) they start saying, 'We have to get new instrumentation for our combat officers.'
"People want to hope for the best and everyone's talking about co-operation and playing by the rules and I think they're trying not to provoke the Russians. But everyone has also recognized that, to a certain degree, the Russians are going to do what the Russians are doing," including more test launches of their Bulava intercontinental missiles from submarines on Russia's Arctic coast.
Canada was one of the first countries to identify the strategic issues of a melting Arctic and successive federal governments this decade have, "a very accurate set of understandings of the problems that are coming. But in a typical Canadian fashion, we're still in a situation that we haven't started spending."
The Harper government has announced over the last several years the creation of a military training centre in the Arctic, economic aid to the region, as well as the construction of a new port, an icebreaker and a fleet of Arctic patrol ships. Work is under way on the various projects, but in many cases it will take years before they are ready.
Defence officials recently told a parliamentary committee that plans to build six to eight Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) for constabulary duties will have minimum armament capabilities, few add-on capabilities and, "probably ... a gun, but that seems an afterthought," said Huebert.
"The speed is being reduced so, if you're in a situation where the ice is indeed diminishing, you're going to be left with this very slow craft that's going to be the major instrument for us for the next 40 years. So we're penny-pinching at this point in time."
The Norwegians and Danes, by comparison, have spent the last 15 years re-arming with a very combat-capable and Arctic-capable navy and air force, he said. The Norwegians recently spent $7 billion on the most expensive class of ships that they've ever built. The five frigates are designed for high-Arctic operations with an air superiority capability and state-of-the-art U.S. Ageis combat systems.
"They're clearly understanding that the future is not nearly as nice as what all the public policy statements say," said Huebert.
And the U.S., in addition to the planned naval re-armament, is to station 36 F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets -- 20 per cent of its F-22 fleet and what many consider the best overall fighter jet in the world -- in Anchorage, Alaska.
"If the north isn't important, why are you taking such a scare, such an expensive aircraft ... and putting one fifth of them in the Arctic? That tells you something."
Even the Chinese, he said, are building two to three new ice breakers that will give them an icebreaking fleet larger than the Americans and, "pretty well ... larger than ours."
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26 Comments so far
Show AllIt would be nice if the greedy gangsters left a tiny bit of our world for our children - if any survive.
Agreed. It would also be nice if the greedy gangsters left a tiny bit of the world for those we share it with: wolves, seals, birds, whales, foxes etc. Our children - if any survive - would probably like to know that the human race is not totally alone on a destroyed planet.
1) Amazing how when our government downplays the effects of global warming when it comes to taking action to avoid it; however, the government has no problem putting together a military action plan including spending for the inevitable consequences of global warming.
2) Another example of defense (war) spending without accountability. There is no public debate about spending probably 10's of billion of tax dollars on this new rearmament to maintain the US empire; however, if you want to spend the same amount to improve public education, subsidize health care, or build public transportation, a political uproar is created.
Hah, the military is probably the part of government taking global warming most seriously.
I thought the Arctic was a world park
ez 12:33 ------- Antarctica , but they are chomping at the bit to exploit it also.
You can't even make up this stuff. Reality is stranger than fiction. One thing I have come to see and understand now at 52, is that one can never even begin to imagine what craziness is in the future. Stranger thatn even Alice in WonderLand. The world goes faster and faster... down the hole... to hell.
You can't even make up this stuff. Reality is stranger than fiction. One thing I have come to see and understand now at 52, is that one can never even begin to imagine what craziness is in the future. Stranger thatn even Alice in WonderLand. The world goes faster and faster... down the hole... to hell.
We all have a choice, you know. I choose to go in the opposite direction.
What was left entirely unwritten was what the Russians are planning to do in reaction to the shrinking Arctic polar ice cap; more offshore oil platforms. Of course, they are ready to press their claims by any means necessary.
while the yanks will press theirs by means mostly unnecessary.
Ah yes, those nasty, scheming Ruzzians.
So nasty they've managed to weasel their way to a 170 degrees of the shoreline (that's 170/360 - nearly half, for those of US not so strong on math and facts) on the Arctic circumference. While USA has only 25 degrees, and Canada some 70 degrees. The rest is Norway and Denmark (Greenland). Look at a map.
Isn't it just typical how those sneaky Ruzzians have edged up to the North Pole like that while noone were looking?
"Man in his stupid acts, iron mail from head to toe. Why bother to raise your bow? No arrow can pierce that." Sufism
The US Navy militarized the Arctic in the 1950s, and know as much about it as our own coastline. Any subsequent "push" is merely the cutting edge of a continuum that has been maintained since the Evil Communists (Copyright) planned to conquer the entire world.
This article is a waste of our time.
This really is about american hegemony over all those untapped resources and then, also or possibly where the next war(s) will be fought and quite possibly with nukes.
The thought of every creature being the child of a mother, whose ultimate destiny is dust, and part of an astounding organism while here that needs to rest, cease and desist and become conscious.
The multi-dimensional growth spurt, like an adolescent seems to expect the parent to reign in on excess. No, this time it has to be a conscious, humble, loving and respectful decision.
Billions of starving people know this...and are watching and waiting. Waiting for the chattering and bellicosity to quiet long enough for conversation to begin. In the mean time creating ways to keep lives together.
consider the depth of wisdom that exists there and how deeply we need it
what are the strategic minerals for which we would be arming and maybe fighting? and how does global warming accelerate any potential conflict between countries over the resources under the ice? how about someone giving some basic answers here. and now norway, a nato country with a lot of oil, is spending huge amounts to arm itself in the event of a clash over arctic resources. is it that the more the ice melts, the more oil and other minerals become accessible? with more oil to use, will we then increase the global warming that will melt even more ice, which will then spur the need to buy more weapons to compete for the resources laid bare by all that has melted? skating in tightly defined circles used to yield a lot of points in olympic competition. had no idea that it could lead to an ice war at the top of the world! are we in the us selling norway their new planes, ships, and subs?
We are all-purpose militarized for any opportunity that rears its head; Sparta on steroids.
Hey, there's big-time $ to be made by the transnational corporations that own the government. But, it'll sound better if we label it "national security."
in truth - notional security.
This is like the members of a family fighting over who gets to toast a marshmallow over their burning house.
But the Climate-Deniers that pop up like ugly mushrooms on every GW story all told me Global Warming is a Liberal hoax. Man, what a conspiracy indeed! Those darn liberals have even fooled the US Navy into believing it will melt by 2030.
Boy, are they alls, gunna be surprised, surprised, surprised when they gits up there and discover that "Rush the Druggie" was right all along! BRRRRRRR!
And Sarah Palin can see ice from her state, so she's knows it's a hoax. It's a Gosh-Darn
"Cooling Trend" we're in, don't cha know.
You Betcha.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
The Arctic waters are claimed by Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland, and the UK. The US lays some claim via Alaska.
They are after the theoretical deposits of oil and possibly natural gas, and some industrial minerals, as well as the long hoped for polar sea route.
What the US Military and government refuse to accept is that their ports will be *under water*!
If the Arctic is ice free enough to permit free passage of cargo shipping, that means than the Greenland Ice Sheet has melted off, raising world sea levels by *TWENTY-SEVEN FEET*!
And there is no way in hell you will be able to retrofit and rebuild every single US port in time. New Orleans will be a total loss, New York harbor will be useless, as will every other port in the US and around the world. The Texas coast will be underwater more than 100 miles inland!
So go ahead USA... claim the Arctic.
The Sea will claim you.
National Geographic News reported on Sept.17, 2007 that the northwest passage was ice free for the first time since satellite records began being kept in 1978. Opening of the northwest passage will not require any vast melting of the Greenland ice cap or any great rise in sea level. The northeast passage has already been used to transport cargo from Korea to Siberia. Exagerrated claims by poorly informed scaremongers do nothing to help people grasp the real dangers of global warming.
kayaker,
You seem to be confused as to cause and effect. Nobody is going to "open" the Northwest Passageway. Melting sea channel ice IS what opened it. Unlike you, those "poorly informed scaremongers" seem to grasp that sea ice is also missing around greenland. Sea Ice reflectivity is what prevents Ice Shelves from breaking off. Ice shelves are what keep the glaciers from coming apart. Glaciers are the legs of the ice cap and once they slide into the sea you have my permission to start being scared.
Read this and you will see that the "scaremongers" are quite possibly better informed than you are:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/08/4409
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
The really big greedy people who run this world must have an overall plan to capitalize on every misfortune of the human race. Why else would they be running as fast as they can towards any disaster man-made or natural? They LOVE destruction of any kind. They adore human suffering. It's the quickest way to line their near-sighted pockets. It's the most secure way of assuring future payoffs. Rape nature first and then destroy it.
Take out the water, the streams, the rivers, the lakes the oceans...take out the air, take out the earth. Each destruction reaps them trillions as people pay them to give them the basics to just survive.
Not nto say I told you so, but it was pretty obvious to me that the corporations want GW so as to access artic minerals and sea passage.