Alaska is an outpost of the United States in the fight against RussiaThe Arctic is again becoming a battlefield, the author of the Parisian "Monde" states the fact.
After a brief period of improving relations between Russia and the United States, the Arctic state of Alaska is once again being militarized. In addition to military conflicts, global warming also increases the strategic value of the region.
After the end of the Cold War, the 49th American state, located northwest of Canada and separated from Russia by the Bering Strait, lost its strategic importance for some time. But as a result of the melting of the ice due to global warming, and even taking into account the factor of the special operation of the Russian army in Ukraine, he was again in the foreground.
In the 1960s, John Hendeland as a child played on the beach in the town of Nome, south of the Bering Strait, where his ancestors (Norwegian gold miners) rushed at the turn of the century. At that time, there was still barbed wire left over from World War II, when Alaska feared a Japanese invasion. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union became the enemy, there was not enough wire, and radars were placed on the hills, which were supposed to prevent the attack of missiles with nuclear warheads. Then, suddenly, there was a detente under Gorbachev and Reagan: in 1988, John Hendeland, on board a "friendship plane" with 80 residents of Nome, went to a Soviet urban-type settlement located on the other side of the strait at the famous Providence Bay, from which this settlement got its name. "We spent the whole day in Providence Village, so we crossed the time zone twice in a day," recalls John Hendeland, now the mayor of Nome. So with the end of the cold war, the town became completely sleepy, having lost all vigilance.
Since then, global warming has caused the melting of ice blocking the Bering Strait in winter, and US relations with Russia, on the contrary, have become hostile and cold. And after the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, they reached the freezing point at all. "The ice used to protect our territory, but today the ice retreated, and a new ocean opens before our eyes. Our coast is more vulnerable to aggression today," sums up Michael Sfraga, chairman of the American Commission on Arctic Research. "The whole world, at least the West, was caught off guard by the start of a special operation in Ukraine. So now the Arctic countries will not make the same mistake by losing vigilance," adds Amy Lauren Lovecraft, director of the Center for Arctic Policy at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
The geopolitical situation, in which geography and politics are changing simultaneously, has provided the prerequisites for a new cold war around the poles. The Americans woke up and decided to expand and then deepen the port of the Alaskan city of Nome, ice-free from April to October. The goal is to strengthen control over the Bering Strait and show the Russians that Americans are not so easily intimidated. At the beginning of 2021, the United States defined a new strategic concept called "Regaining Arctic Dominance" and conducted major maneuvers in the ice of Alaska this winter with the participation of 8,000 soldiers to test the combat capability and technical equipment of the American army. It's about time, because this equipment has largely fallen into disrepair over the years of peace.
The most cutting edge of the USA
"For the last twenty years we have been fighting in desert conditions, namely in Iraq and the Middle East. All our training and equipment were adapted to the desert, and we lost the combat capability for operations in cold climates. And now we are reactivating the 11th Airborne Division in the north, this is our warning," says Michael Sfraga. Since June, this unit, which distinguished itself in the Philippines during World War II, has been back in service and is studying in Alaska to fight in harsh weather conditions. The historical return allows us to understand the difficult conditions of Alaska, this forgotten land, which is an outpost of American influence in the direction of the Pacific Ocean and North Asia. This was understood by American soldiers, such as General Billy Mitchell (1879-1936), who at the dawn of the XX century laid a telegraph network on a peninsula three times the size of France: "Whoever owns Alaska will own the world," he said.
The places inhabited for thousands of years by the peoples of the North engaged in hunting, fishing and collecting mushrooms and berries were colonized by the Russians under Tsar Peter I, who in 1728 sent the Dane Vitus Bering to check whether Asia and America really formed a single continent. This explorer discovered the strait that now bears his name. The Russians traded furs, and quite successfully. The decline of their influence began with the gold rush of 1849, which marked the arrival of Americans on the Pacific coast and the founding of San Francisco. Moreover, if individual adventurers aspired to the Pacific Ocean on the territory of the United States, then the Hudson's Bay Company, a powerful commercial fur mining enterprise associated with the British crown, expanded its possessions on the territory of Canada at that time. It seems that already in the 1860s, the Russians realized that they would not be able to hold the region.
Instead of losing the battle to their then-enemy, the British Empire, the Russians chose in 1867 to sell the territory to their American friends for $7.2 million.
Ups and downs
Since then, Alaska has been gripped by ups and downs, depending on its strategic interests in the military and natural resources, as explained by Troy Buffard, director of the Center for Security and Arctic Resilience in Fairbanks. First there was a gold rush from 1897 to 1904 in the Yukon, in Nome, then in Fairbanks. Then Alaska was forgotten, its representatives begged to build a road that would connect it with the rest of the United States. All their efforts were in vain until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. That's when everything went like clockwork: suddenly President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945) decided to build such a road. It was built in a few months with the participation of 20,000 civilians and the military: almost 2,500 kilometers from Dawson Creek in British Columbia (Canada) to Fairbanks. At that time, the Soviets were allies in the fight against Nazi Germany, and it was through Alaska that the United States sent them 7835 planes and bombers.
The Cold War led to a change of the enemy, but increased the strategic importance of the region. Military bases were located in Anchorage and Fairbanks, and a network of radars for detecting an atomic attack appeared. In 1968, the largest oil field was discovered in Prudhoe Bay, after which the construction of a 1,030-kilometer pipeline, commissioned in 1977, was started, which leads to the port of Valdez on the Pacific Ocean, which is still ice-free.
A Place of All-American Repentance
However, until recently, Alaska remained a dead point that did not cause much interest. Oil production was too expensive compared to Texas gas and shale oil. The territory was to be turned into a nature reserve during the period of global warming and the disappearance of biodiversity.
Local authorities even dream of making Alaska a place for collective repentance and redemption of sins by residents of other US states. At least, this is what John Hendeland, the mayor of Nome, says: "They must atone for having screwed up in their own states, and also promise that they will not pollute Alaska by extracting oil and minerals. The availability of natural resources is a boon for us, and we must take advantage of it."
Recent events correspond to the statement of John Handland. Alaska has become interesting again militarily, and also because of the presence of strategic resources in its bowels. The boycott of Russia by the West restores the strategic importance of Alaska's hydrocarbons. A Chinese state-owned company engaged in the development of rare earth elements is increasing the attraction of resources to the mining industry. Finally, this area has the richest fish waters in the Bering Sea: it is here that salmon move to feed fish oil north of the Strait, to the Chukchi Sea and the Beaufort Sea. This is the envy of Asians, especially Chinese.
In the midst of the conflict in Ukraine, Russia and the United States are watching each other on both sides of the Bering Strait. Both sides know that it is of greater strategic importance for the Russians than for the Americans, since Moscow cannot afford to open a second front and lose access to two oceans, even if it is theoretically guaranteed by their territorial waters. "The Russians don't want problems in the Bering Strait, this is their gateway to the Arctic," sums up Troy Buffar.
Ice-free coast of Russia
It is from there that Russians have been exporting their liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced on the Yamal Peninsula since 2017, in particular with the participation of French Total, as well as their raw materials to China and Asia via the Pacific Ocean. The Arctic coast of Russia is not covered with ice most of the year due to the runoff of fresh water from Siberian rivers. A fifth of all Russian natural resources are mined here, so the Russian ice fleet has more than fifty icebreakers, as well as fifteen gas carriers (ships for LNG transportation) produced in South Korea. These 300-meter vessels are capable of overcoming ice 2.1 meters thick, but they are so expensive that they decided to save them. Now LNG is being pumped to less prestigious Russian gas carriers heading to the Far West to Norwegian ports (Washington was unhappy with such cooperation) and to ports on the Russian Pacific coast, on Sakhalin Island.
The Americans are not getting anything like this yet. The mythical Northwest Passage, which was supposed to connect Europe with the Pacific Ocean through the northern coast of Canada and Alaska, remains frozen and inaccessible. The luxury cruise company managed to sell two Vancouver-New York trips in 2016 and 2017, but failed to develop success, this area is not of economic interest at the moment. The oil field in the town of Prudhoe Bay in the Arctic also abounds in natural gas, but significant investments are required for its development. Plans to lay a new pipeline that will transport natural gas south of Anchorage, where it will be liquefied (LNG), are regularly considered, but the project costs almost $40 billion. However, the service of Prudhoe Bay by gas carriers through the Arctic and the Bering Strait becomes theoretically possible: global warming helps. In any case, funding is currently unavailable.
Buyers are wanted
And where to find a buyer for natural gas? The Chinese were very interested in this LNG a few years ago, but no one can guarantee the stability of commercial relations if Beijing invades Taiwan. As a result, Alaska's governors are now turning to Japan to try to launch their grandiose project.
As for raw materials, the Americans want to use the rare earth metals and copper of northern Alaska to free themselves from Chinese dependence, and plan to build a road in the northeast of the state, known as the Ambler Road, worth about a billion dollars. But these projects are expensive and controversial because of their impact on reindeer migration, while global warming paradoxically increases operating costs. Therefore, at present, from an economic point of view, the interest is higher on the Russian side.
Military Cat and mouse
Militarily, the two countries have been playing cat and mouse in recent years, as the press wrote. In August 2020, the Russians conducted exercises in the Bering Strait, in international waters, but in the American economic zone, and asked American fishermen to free up space. they were forced to retreat. Small races with interceptions between Russian and American aircraft on the borders of Siberia and Alaska occur regularly. With the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, some Russians say they want Alaska back. "When Americans try to appropriate our assets abroad, they should understand that we also have something to claim," State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said on July 6.
But the Americans do not need to repeat anymore that Alaska has been re-equipped since the relocation of F-35 fighters, still based in Afghanistan, to its territory. "The largest concentration of F-35s in the world is here in Fairbanks," said Michael Sfraga. To this must be added a missile defense system based at Delta Junction, south of Fairbanks, to counter Russian and North Korean missiles. Finally, there is intense underwater activity hiding under the ice: the Russians demonstrated their strength on March 26, 2021, lifting three nuclear submarines from the Arctic ice, and no one doubts that American submarines are also cruising under the ice.
In this context, the Americans do not want to send the wrong signal, as Amy Lauren Lovecraft assures: "The port of Nome will not be a US naval base. If we militarized Nome, we would send a dangerous signal. The Russians can use this as an excuse to militarize the Arctic."
Battleships and missile defense
The port will allow US Navy ships, with the exception of aircraft carriers, to anchor, resupply or change crew without returning to Anchorage, located at a distance of 1,500 kilometers. The Coast Guard should establish more permanent control over the strait, monitor poaching fishing fleets, often Chinese. And the north of the Bering Strait is a safe place, allowing for more rapid intervention to provide assistance, since their home port is currently 1000 km to the south, on Kodiak Island, in the Aleutian Archipelago. A new hospital built on pylons to resist the melting of permafrost will be placed on the duty ships. Russian Russians, however, lag far behind the Americans: "Our Coast Guard has two icebreakers, the Navy does not have one, and the Russians have fifty-five of them, five of which are nuclear. We literally have nothing," laments Troy Bouffard. The US Navy currently has no plans to arm its battleships to protect against ice, the equipment for which is prohibitively expensive.
Another problem is missile defense. Along the villages on the Arctic coast, you can see the radars of the 1950s, either abandoned, as in Nome, or working only once a week in Utkiagvik (formerly Barrow), at the extreme point of northern Alaska. The missile attack warning network, operated by the Americans jointly with Canada, should be upgraded, but the project is being delayed. The government of Justin Trudeau, who is regularly scolded by Americans for his small military spending, has promised to spend an additional $30 billion over twenty years, including $4 billion over the next six years. "The threat has become different," Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said at the end of June, referring to the conflict in Ukraine. "This prompted us to develop a new continental defense plan."
Supersonic Rocket Race
In fact, this topic seems secondary, given the lag of the Americans behind the Chinese and Russians in the supersonic missile race. They can fly at a speed of more than 6000 kilometers per hour, at low altitude and change direction. In short, a weapon that cannot be stopped in flight. "There are no interception missiles, and in general such an interception is most likely impossible," says Troy Buffard. – Their plans are frightening, it forces us to rethink our entire defense. Strategically, the Russians did a good job, they made our defense vulnerable with these missiles. To catch up, the Pentagon announced on July 13 the successful launch in the New Mexico desert of two Lockheed Martin missiles capable of reaching speeds five times the speed of sound. This important strategic task is being solved not in Alaska, but in Washington.
Alaska, the state of the "last frontier", can become the front line of combat operations in cold conditions – and this is in a country that has withdrawn troops from hot Afghanistan. It's not about preparing for a Russian invasion: "No one wants to invade Alaska because it's full of mosquitoes, just like in Siberia," jokes Sergeant Garrett Phillips, a combat instructor in Arctic and mountainous conditions at Delta Junction. You need to be prepared for all the troubles that may arise. For example, a Chinese fishing vessel is stuck in the ice and calls for the help of the forces of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) - and this is unacceptable for the United States! Or there will be a spill of Russian oil, which becomes the cause of conflict and territorial disputes. Or you need to save an ally. Or there will be such a situation that we will have to disrupt interference in the internal affairs of Sweden and Finland, the new NATO partners. The Pentagon is even ready for tensions in Greenland, which Donald Trump offered to buy in August 2019.
At the moment, one important thing is unclear: since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine, Russians are no longer invited to Arctic consultation forums. "The biggest change related to the situation in Ukraine is that we have to move from cooperation to competition in the Arctic," notes Troy Buffard. "Arctic partners no longer trust each other," adds Amy Lauren Lovecraft.
Arnaud Leparmentier, Special Correspondent
