The United States faces severe threats from the dramatic increase in Russian military strength in the Arctic. The resources Washington has to confront it are wholly inadequate, even assuming the Coast Guard receives funding for a new icebreaker in the 2018 budget.
In May, NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller noted that “NATO must be more active in the area… there are real military challenges developing to which the NATO alliance has not paid sufficient attention for many, many years and we need to up our game…”
According to a Congressional Research Service Report, The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2018 budget requests $19 million in acquisition funding for a new polar icebreaker that the Coast Guard wants to begin building in FY2019. The current condition of the U.S. polar icebreaker fleet, (the U.S. has only two icebreakers committed to the Arctic, while Russia has forty) and concerns among some observers about whether the United States is adequately investing in capabilities to carry out its responsibilities and defend its interests in the Arctic, have focused policymaker attention on the question of whether and when to acquire one or more new heavy polar icebreakers.
A Washington Times article noted that the proposed icebreaker may carry cruise missiles. Carlos Munoz reports “That announcement, just as Russia is beefing up its much-larger fleet of icebreakers plying the Arctic waters, is the clearest sign that a literal and figurative Cold War may be heating up at the top of the world.”
The U.S. Naval Institute quotes Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zuknft’s statement in support of new icebreakers:“If you do not have presence to exert sovereignty, you’re a paper lion.”
As the New York Analysis of Policy and Government has noted, Russia is engaging in new and extremely worrisome activities in the Arctic. According to The NATO Association’s Aleksi Korpela “…the erection of military bases and deployment of forces rings ominous to contiguous states and those with Arctic possessions or interests. This issue has become especially controversial in the last few years, as Russia has expanded its military infrastructure following the creation of a new strategic district: the Arctic Joint Strategic Command (OSK) … …Russia’s most important maritime asset in the Arctic is its fleet of icebreakers, which is the largest in the world.”
Mark Galeotti has written in the Moscow Times that “Russia is using extortion in the Arctic… Russia’s icebreaker fleet is a particular ‘ice-power’ asset: It is the world’s largest and includes the massive nuclear-powered vessel 50 Years of Victory… This is all very impressive, but it begs the question of just what these forces are meant to do. Bombers cannot dig for oil, infantry cannot collect taxes from passing Chinese container ships. But they can board and occupy oil rigs, seize cargo ships and threaten any forces that seek to challenge Moscow’s right to do this. After all, it may be impossible to ‘occupy’ the Arctic, but Russia is developing assets that could deny it to anyone else.”
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In 2015, the military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported that a new Russian Arctic command was under development, including four new Arctic brigades, 50 airfields by 2020, increased long-range air patrols by Russian bombers and a total of 40 conventional and nuclear icebreakers, with 11 more planned. That same year, the BBC reported that Russia was developing a new naval infrastructure in the region. In addition to a new air defense base on Sredniy Island, five island bases were being built by 1,500 workers – at Alexandra Land, Rogachevo, Cape Schmidt, Wrangel and Kotelny. During that year’s summer months, according to Defense News, Russia launched military exercises in the region that included over 1,000 soldiers, 14 aircraft and 34 special military units.
Moscow has reopened former Soviet Union cold war bases and developed at least ten new sites it calls rescue stations in the region. In 2007, one of its submarines dropped a canister with a Russian flag in the area to symbolize its claim.
Moscow’s military aircraft have flown provocatively close to Arctic-area territories belonging to NATO members.
According to Russia Direct, “Russia’s claims on …vast swaths of territory in the Arctic are reinforced by its ability to project force in the region. Its fleet of several dozens of icebreakers, including nuclear…gives Russia an economic and military advantage in the Arctic. The Deputy Prime Minister of Russia in charge of the defense industry, Dmitry Rogozin, stated that Russia has already launched the construction of a new nuclear icebreaker fleet”
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) has stated that “… the Russians are playing chess in the Arctic and [the Obama Administration thought it was] tic-tac-toe.” China is now also entering into the fray, constructing its own icebreaker as part of its massive naval buildup.
Moscow’s Arctic military buildup occurred as the United States was reducing its military spending under the Obama Administration.