Pentagon to bolster response to China and Russia in the Arctic

The United States will expand its military readiness and surveillance in the Arctic given heightened Chinese and Russian interest coupled with new risks brought on by accelerating climate change, the Pentagon said in a new report.

Measures are needed “to ensure the Arctic does not become a strategic blind spot” as melting ice makes the region more accessible economically and militarily, according to the Defense Department’s 2024 Arctic Strategy released Monday.

Priorities include better surveillance of the vast region, as well as research into space-based missile warning systems, deeper coordination across NATO and with Canada through the North American Aerospace Defense Command, and improved satellite and data communications. The Pentagon also said it needs better modeling and forecasting of the rapidly changing environment to prepare for potential combat in increasingly unpredictable conditions so far north.

The Pentagon highlighted concern over a “growing alignment” between China and Russia, Washington’s two top national security competitors.

“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,” Kathleen Hicks, Deputy Secretary of Defense, said during a briefing Monday. China is “the only strategic competitor with the will and increasingly the wherewithal to remake the international order” while Russia “continues to pose an acute threat to security and stability in the region.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has isolated it from the seven other nations that ring the Arctic, all of them now members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and made it more dependent on China, which is pursuing its own agenda in the region. Arctic countries in North America and Europe have also found themselves facing new threats, from GPS jamming to alleged spy balloons.

China, while not an Arctic nation, is attempting to gain influence, access “and play a larger role in regional governance.” It operates three icebreakers in the region for dual civil-military research and has tested unmanned underwater vehicles and polar-capable fixed-wing aircraft, the Pentagon said.

The Arctic is warming multiple times faster than any other region on earth, creating opportunities for countries with Arctic coastlines to exploit still largely theoretical mineral and energy resources.

The region’s strategic importance is also changing as sea ice melts, meaning the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia and the Barents Sea north of Norway “are becoming more navigable and more economically and militarily significant,” according to the report.

“Climate change and the resulting shifts in the operating environment require us to rethink how we best protect our war fighters and prevent conflict,” Hicks said.

Russia continues to invest in new military infrastructure and refurbish Soviet-era installations in the region. As well, its Northern Fleet is based in the Kola Peninsula, along with submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

Russia has “a clear avenue of approach to the US homeland through the Arctic” and could use its capabilities there to stop the US from responding to crises in Europe or the Indo-Pacific region. Its maritime infrastructure could also allow it to control the Northern Sea Route, even in areas where it has no legal claims, according to the report.

“The United States is an Arctic nation, and the region is critical to the defense of our homeland, the protection of US national sovereignty and our defense treaty commitments,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in an attached memo. “Major geopolitical changes are driving the need for this new strategic approach to the Arctic.”