Down by the harbour in Longyearbyen, the crew of the Polargirl prepared for the day’s voyage, a round trip across the fjord to the Russian coal-mining settlement of Barentsburg on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.
One would-be traveller, her suitcase set down in the snow, explained that she planned to spend the night in Barentsburg and return the next day before Masha, the Russian guide, shook her head sadly.
America has fewer icebreakers than China or Russia. Does that leave us vulnerable?
As melting ice opens up trade routes in the Arctic Ocean, the Far North is becoming another geopolitical battlefield between the United States and its adversaries. The U.S. Coast Guard has fewer ships able to puncture through the frozen sea than China or Russia, and some writers fear that America’s Arctic interests are becoming vulnerable to authoritarian expansion. Washington might end up like a nervous boy on a first date — unable to break the ice.
“Both Putin and Xi have made clear,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said, “that the High North is key to their strategic interests.” Indeed, Wall Street Journal reporters William Mauldin and Alan Cullison have highlighted the authoritarians’ Arctic activity, including Russia’s increased presence in the region and Beijing’s use of its intelligence network to back Moscow’s activities in the area.
Interesting that these articles from the Spectator & the WSJ mention Canada only in passing.
The ship’s searchlight pencils its beam from one suspect cake of ice to the next. The Arctic night deepens its blues and, at the horizon, flares orange across the waters of Victoria Strait, in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region, as one of Canada’s newest Arctic and offshore patrol ships makes its way south. Summer is waning across the Northwest Passage, the storied sea route linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and with it, the Royal Canadian Navy’s latest northern sovereignty patrol, a two-month deployment that will take HMCS Margaret Brooke from her home port of Halifax to Greenland’s shores and on to Iqaluktuuttiaq (Cambridge Bay), Nunavut, then back again.
Old ice? New? Under the accusation of a naval searchlight, it all looks spectral, slightly spooky, caught-in-the-act. Tonight, none of it will pose any danger to navigation. I’ve joined Margaret Brooke on her inaugural deployment for a two-week visit as the $700-million vessel, rated Polar Class 5 for icebreaking, surges into the country’s North as part of the annual Operation Nanook.
According to Defence Chief Gen. Wayne Eyre, Canada cannot hope to maintain a permanent presence in the north, but instead will only deploy troops where necessary.
Eyre appeared before a Senate committee earlier this week as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Defence Minister Anita Anand met with premiers from Canada’s territories – Nunavut, Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
Like Ukraine, the region is perceived by Vladimir Putin as an integral part of his country. Several modern Arctic warfare bases house, operate and are testing some of Russia’s most advanced weapons.
A Department of National Defence briefing note identifies the urgent need to “kick off without delay” a replacement project for the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) four Victoria-class submarines. The British built vessels, acquired second hand in 1998 by the Chrétien government in a nearly $900 million lease-to-buy contract, are due to be retired or “paid off” 15 years from now, between 2036 and 2042 . At that point the submarines will be 50 years old.
The crew of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter was surprised this summer to find the Chinese and Russian navies conducting a joint exercise in open water in the Arctic Ocean.
Details about what was apparently a serendipitous discovery of the Chinese and Russian vessels by the U.S. Coast Guard were sparse.
Until this chance encounter near the top of the world, Western countries with an interest in the Far North, such as Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Norway, the United Kingdom, France and the United States, were unaware of what was going on, a former commandant of the coast guard told a recent virtual conference hosted by the Defense News.
