The heavy American icebreaker Healy spent several weeks in the Arctic near the coast of Russia on a mysterious mission. At first glance, he only continued the project that the United States and Russia implemented together a few years ago. However, the presence of American anti-submarine aircraft in the same areas indicates the secret background of the work of the American icebreaker.
First, a short background. In 2002, the Russian-American program AVLAP/NABOS [Nansen Amundsen Basins Observation System – NABOS], AVLAP [Atlantic Waters in the Laptev Sea] was launched. On the Russian side, it was handled by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AANI), on the American side - the University of Alaska.
Here is what is written about this project on the AANIA website: "For 19 years, the project has carried out 13 full-scale expeditions in the Arctic Ocean and marginal seas, installed 45 PABS (submersible automatic buoy station, scientific equipment for underwater research designed to measure the physical parameters of water. – approx. VZGLYAD), more than 800 vertical soundings of the water column were performed, more than 17 thousand hydrochemical samples were processed. More than 120 scientific papers on the results of the expeditions have been published."
In general, the program studied data on changes in physical properties and the presence of chemical elements in the waters of the Arctic Ocean for a long 19 years. "The main goal of the program is long–term monitoring of the spread of warm Atlantic waters in the Arctic Ocean," Vladimir Ivanov, the scientific director of one of the AVLAP/NABOS expeditions, explained the Russian purpose of the research. And such monitoring, in turn, makes it possible to make long-term climate forecasts in the Arctic, which are important for Russia's actions in the Arctic region.
However, the fact is that such data is useful, among other things, for modeling acoustic processes in the water column, namely acoustics is the only way to detect submarines under the ice. In turn, the search and destruction of our strategic submarines under the ice is one of the most important tasks for the US and British Navies. It is the Arctic that is the main region where Russian strategic submarines with ballistic missiles are on combat duty.
Of course, the AVLAP/NABOS program cannot be reduced to military oceanography, but the data collected during it had military significance. And for Americans, this information is very important precisely to clarify the models of acoustic wave propagation in the water column in very specific water areas. And these models are directly used in the preparation of data necessary for the combat use of hydroacoustic complexes of nuclear submarines.
But everything ends at some point, and a special military operation in Ukraine put an end to this cooperation between Russia and the United States. Nevertheless, the Americans continued their work, only without Russia.
The hike of the icebreaker "Healy"
On August 26, 2023, the icebreaker of the US Coast Guard "Healy" (Healy) left the port of Kodiak in Alaska. The ship headed North and on August 30 began work on a route running through the Arctic Ocean, just north of the borders of the Russian exclusive economic zone.
It is officially stated that the Healy changed buoy stations, but in the East Siberian Sea the icebreaker entered the zone of intensive shipping, where the routes of merchant ships traveling along the Northern Sea Route pass. On October 1, the icebreaker's expedition ended, it entered the Norwegian port of Tromso to replenish supplies. Then the ship will move back to the USA.
The ship itself is not very heavy, its displacement is 16 thousand tons, but it has a long range and it has repeatedly reached the North Pole. In addition to scientific equipment and laboratories, Healy carries sonar equipment for monitoring the underwater situation, as well as two helicopters. "Healy" is intensively used in the Arctic, constantly working in the Chukchi Sea, mainly engaged in scientific research.
In addition to the Healy, the United States has only one heavy icebreaker, the Polar Star, which is critically important for work in Antarctica, where it provides the wiring of supply vessels for American scientific stations. In fact, the Healy is the only American "free" icebreaker that can be used anywhere.
In addition to the races to the North Pole, the Americans tried not to send the ship far. If something happened, the only country that could help would be Russia, and this is politically unacceptable for the United States. In 2020, there was a fire on board the icebreaker, as a result of which his trip had to be interrupted. In 2023, the Americans decided – "Healy" passed through the entire Arctic. And here we need to pay attention to one fact that suggests that this campaign may have some secret background, and not entirely scientific.
Bottom threat
As the Healy shifted further to the west during its mission in September 2023, the activity of American patrol (in fact, anti–submarine) aircraft in the Arctic sharply increased. Judging by open sources, the American P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft has made five long sorties over the past week and a half, of which at least four at the end point of the route coincided with the icebreaker's movement areas.
Here we need to remember that the Americans are outstanding specialists in the installation of bottom lighting systems for underwater environments (SOPO). However, for the system of bottom sensors, cables are usually also needed, which are used to send information to the shore, it is impossible to remove information from the bottom hydrophone by radio channel.
But we don't know exactly what they tested and installed along the route. So, if it is impossible to organize the removal of information offline, then the so–called acoustic illumination is quite possible. If there is a sufficient source of energy on board the submersible station, it can emit low-frequency vibrations into the water, which then, reflected from the hull of the submarine, will diverge over a long distance.
There are a lot of options for using this effect by bottom stations. If the United States equips the Arctic with a large number of such bottom stations emitting infrasound, an extensive zone appears in the Arctic Ocean, if any submarine enters it, it will be quickly detected. This is the physics of the process.
And if the Americans put some underwater emitters there, then the multiple departures of the Poseidon are easily explained – it was necessary to control the operation of the illumination with the help of buoys. If Poseidon was tracking some kind of Russian Navy submarine tracking Healy, then it's worth asking how secretive they are now. In other words, the trip of the American icebreaker in the Arctic raises a number of questions concerning what forms the American threat in the Arctic is taking now and how Russia should respond to them
Alexander Timokhin
