The subject of employing the Arctic, especially the long-fabled and now practicable Northwest Passage, for both civilian and military transit will be examined with the second component in the battle for the Arctic.
Also in 2007 Barry L. Campbell, head of operations at the U.S. Navy Arctic Submarine Laboratory, in referring to joint NATO war plans for the Arctic, said: "’We’re a worldwide Navy and the Navy’s position is we should be able to operate in any ocean in the world....When you go through the Arctic, no one knows you’re there....We expect all our subs to be able to operate in the Arctic....Our strategic position is to be able to operate anywhere in the world, and we see the Arctic as part of that....[I]f we ever did have to fight a battle under there it would be a joint operation.’" [10]
In a previous article in this series, NATO’s, Pentagon’s New Strategic Battleground: The Arctic [11], it was observed that "with US and NATO missile and satellite radar and interceptor missile facilities around the world and in space, the only place where Russia could retain a deterrence and/or retaliatory capacity against a crushing nuclear first strike is under the polar ice cap....[W]ithout this capability Russia could be rendered completely defenseless in the event of a first strike nuclear attack."
In 2006 a Russian military press source quoted Navy Commander Admiral Vladimir Masorin commenting on the requirement for Russian submarines to maintain a presence under the Arctic polar ice cap: "[T]raining is needed to help strategic submarines of the Russian Fleet head for the Arctic ice region, which is the least vulnerable to an adversary’s monitoring, and prepare for a response to a ballistic missile strike in the event of a nuclear conflict.
"In order to be able to fulfill this task – I mean the task of preserving strategic submarines – it is necessary to train Russian submariners to maneuver under the Arctic ice." [12]
Northwest Passage Could Transform Global Civilian, Military Shipping: Canada Confronts Russia
In recent years a direct shipping route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific in the Northern Hemisphere through the Northwest Passage has presented the prospect of cutting thousands of kilometers and several days if not weeks for ships - civilian and military - from the traditional routes through the Panama and Suez canals and for larger vessels even having to round the southern tips of Africa and South America.
Arctic melting has reduced the ice in the area to its lowest level in the thirty-three years satellite images have measured it, with the Northwest Passage entirely open for the first time in recorded history.
US National Security Presidential Directive 66 also includes the intention to "Preserve the global mobility of United States military and civilian vessels and aircraft throughout the Arctic region" and to "Project a sovereign United States maritime presence in the Arctic in support of essential United States interests." [13]
Canada claims the Northwest Passage as its exclusive territory but Washington insists that "The Northwest Passage is a strait used for international navigation, and the Northern Sea Route includes straits used for international navigation; the regime of transit passage applies to passage through those straits. Preserving the rights and duties relating to navigation and overflight in the Arctic region supports our ability to exercise these rights throughout the world, including through strategic straits." [14]
That is, the US bluntly contests Canada's contentions about the passage, which runs along the north of that nation and no other, being its national territory and insists on internationalizing it.
Notwithstanding which there is no evidence that any member of the Canadian government, the ruling Conservative Party, its Liberal Party opposition or even the New Democratic Party has responded to the US National Security Directive, the first major American statement on the issue in fifteen years, with even a murmur of disapprobation.
Instead all concern and no little hostility has been directed by Canadian authorities, particularly the federal government, at a nation that doesn't assert the right to deploy warships with long-range cruise missiles, nuclear submarines and Aegis class destroyers equipped with interceptor missiles only miles off the Canadian mainland in the wider Western extreme of the Passage and other naval vessels between the mainland and its northern islands: Russia.
The threats and bluster, insults and provocations staged by top Canadian officials over the past three and a half months have at times reached an hysterical pitch, not only rivaling but exceeding the depths of the Cold War period.
The current campaign was adumbrated last August after the five-day war between Georgia and Russia when Prime Minister Stephen Harper "accused Russia of reverting to a 'Soviet-era mentality'" [15] and Defence Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said "When we see a Russian Bear [Tupolev Tu-95] approaching Canadian air space, we meet them with an F-18" [16] and has not let up since.
After then recently inaugurated US President Barack Obama make his first trip outside the United States in mid-February to the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Defence Minister MacKay stated regarding an alleged interception of a Russian bomber over the Arctic Ocean - in international, neutral airspace - shortly before Obama's arrival:
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