China and Russia are increasing their economic and security activities in the Arctic and U.S. military forces are preparing multiple types of operations to counter any threats in the region, according to the Pentagon’s new strategy on the Arctic.
The Arctic is “strategically vital to U.S. national security,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said in announcing the new strategy blueprint this week.
“Our forces can reach about any theater in the Northern Hemisphere by way of the Arctic. Yet, melting Arctic ice caps are opening new shipping lanes and attracting increased interest and activity from both the People’s Republic of China and Russia.”
The U.S. buildup includes new military facilities at the Space Force’s Pituffik Space Base, 947 miles from the North Pole on the northwest coast of Greenland. In Alaska, the Army has activated the 11th Airborne Division, known as the Arctic Angels.
More frigid-weather military exercises are being carried out as well in the region, Ms. Hicks told reporters Monday. China is not an Arctic state but is increasing its influence in the region — both military and civilian — to ultimately gain control over the resource-rich region.
Russia “continues to pose an acute threat to security and stability in the region,” Ms. Hicks said, building up military bases in the area and claiming maritime territory in its waters.
“More troubling, we’ve seen growing cooperation between the PRC and Russia in the Arctic, commercially with the PRC being a major funder of Russian energy exploitation in the Arctic, and increasingly militarily with Russia and China conducting joint exercises off the coast of Alaska,” Ms. Hicks said.
More than 80% of Russian natural gas production and nearly 20% of its oil production comes from the Arctic, and Russia in recent years has sought Chinese funding for Arctic extraction and purchase of the oil and gas.
Military cooperation included Chinese and Russian warship activities near the coast of Alaska in 2022 and 2023. The Chinese Coast Guard also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Russian Federal Security Service on cooperative maritime law enforcement.
“These activities could open the door for further PRC presence in the Arctic and along the [northern sea route],” the report said.
The new U.S. strategy will employ what the Pentagon calls “monitor and respond,” a combination of increased intelligence collection and the positioning of military forces there. Most cold weather military bases that could be used in the Arctic currently are located in Alaska.
U.S. military forces, working with NATO allies Canada, Denmark, and new members Finland and Sweden are conducting routine operations in the Arctic.
The operations include enforcing U.S. and Canadian air defense identification intrusions by Russian aircraft, providing integrated air and missile defenses in the region and intercepting vessels that violate U.S. waters. Submarines have also been dispatched and airborne and seaborne military patrols also will continue across the Arctic, including the strategy Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap used by Russian submarines.
Beijing’s growing military cooperation with Russia has “the potential to alter the Arctic’s stability and threat picture,” the report said.
Chinese military activities in the Arctic could impact operations of the Hawaii-based Indo-Pacific Command, which is charged with deterring Chinese military threats to Taiwan, Japan and in the South China Sea.
The region is “integral to the execution of Indo-Pacific operations, as the northern flank for projecting military force from the U.S. homeland to that region,” the strategy states.
Currently, China operates three icebreakers — the Xue Long, Xue Long 2, and Zhong Shan Da Xue Ji Di — deployed for dual civil-military research in the Arctic, including the testing of uncrewed underwater vehicles and polar-capable fixed-wing aircraft.
The vast majority of the Arctic is under the jurisdiction of sovereign states in the region. China, however, is seeking to redefine the region as a “global commons” as a way to expand its influence over areas in the region. Beijing also has announced a “Polar Silk Road” program to gain control over areas of the Arctic through investments in infrastructure and natural resources, including on the territory of NATO allies, the report said.
The U.S. has few icebreakers needed to support operations in the region. The U.S., Canada and Finland recently announced plans to collaborate on icebreaker production.
Russia under President Vladimir Putin views the Arctic as significant for security and economic benefits and has the most developed military present there.
“Russia continues to invest heavily in new military infrastructure and refurbishing Soviet-era installations in the Arctic,” the report said.
“In addition to nuclear, conventional, and special operations threats, Russia seeks to carry out lower-level destabilizing activities in the Arctic against the United States and our allies,” including jamming GPS navigation signals and conducting military flights.
The Pentagon also is concerned with Russia’s “clear avenue” of attack on the U.S. homeland. Russia also could threaten shipping through the northern sea route between the Bering Strait and Kara Strait by enforcing excessive and illegal maritime claims.
Russia has claimed the right to regulate Arctic waters along the sea route that the U.S. views as international waters.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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