Polar region security issues heat up -- PART II

In July, Moscow announced it would send its Northern Fleet Navy, based at Severomorsk on the Kola Peninsula, to patrol Arctic waters — perhaps, the first time it has done so since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Indeed, it was reported in late September that a Northern Fleet submarine had completed a 30-day transit under the Arctic ice, surfacing off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the northern Pacific Ocean.

Some experts are expecting more than a few new submarines and surface ships for Russia’s once-mighty Kola Peninsula, including, perhaps, another run at developing aircraft carriers that could be operating in northern climes in the out-years. The shipbuilding program will not include just warships, but also as many as 14 new ice breakers in the coming years. In fact, Russia commissioned the world’s largest nuclear-powered ice breaker last year, 50 Years of Victory, bringing the number of nuclear ice-crushing ships available for Arctic duty to seven.

The Russian Navy has tried to downplay its more muscular stance in the Arctic, insisting it is just part of its natural re-emergence as a great naval power. That re-emergence will be bolstered by a 30 percent increase in Russia’s defense budget next year. In a throwback to the Cold War, Moscow already has its Long Range Aviation operating widely, including in the Arctic, using Tu-95 reconnaissance and Tu-142 anti-submarine aircraft from bases in Russia’s northern and far eastern military districts.

In addition to its military maneuvers, in September, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev instructed the drafting of a new state policy on the Arctic, including a law expressing Moscow’s view of the country’s northern border. The Kremlin also has sent scientific exhibitions to the Arctic to survey the area and collect evidence, including soil samples, to support Moscow’s claim to the Lomonosov Ridge as an extension of Russia’s continental shelf. But the Russians are not the only ones gearing up for possible Arctic action.

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