Cold War drums beat in arctic with arrival of US bombers

United States Air Force strategic bombers they will soon pose their bewitching and slender figure in Norway, another example of a military excitement unmatched in the region since the end of the Cold War.

High North, low voltage, goes an old saying that describes the security situation and relatively calm diplomatic relations in the Arctic for decades.

But growing tensions between Russia and Western countries, especially since the Crimean crisis in 2014, have led both sides to strengthen their armies, even in this remote place believed to be rich in natural resources and where the thaw has opened up new routes maritime.

This month, Ørland Air Base awaits for the first time the arrival of the B-1B long-range bombers to train for a few weeks with the Norwegian Air Force, which guards the northern border of NATO.

“This deployment takes place in the context of global military activities in the High North which have increased considerably in recent years, both by the West and by Russia“according to researcher Kristian Åtland.

For this expert from the Norwegian Defense Research Institute (FFI), “the fact that they are strategic bombers naturally worries Russia”.

In reality, Moscow’s blood boils, considering that these aircraft can, under certain circumstances, carry atomic weapons.

“No one in the Arctic prepares for armed conflict. However, there are signs of increasing tension and military escalation, ”said Russian Ambassador to the Arctic Council Nikolai Korchunov.

This militarization in the region “could take us decades back to the days of the Cold War,” he told Russian news agency RIA in early February.

Global constraints

Oslo pulls out all the stops, especially when the base in question, located in the heart of Norway and below the Arctic Circle, isIt is 1,200 kilometers from the Russian border.

“The training of our allies here with us is a well-established and natural aspect of our security policy and our cooperation within NATO,” said Norwegian Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen.

“Russia knows and she has no reason to feel provoked, ”she said in an email to AFP.

But this is not an isolated episode.

Norway has just decided to make available to its American, British and French allies a supply port for its nuclear-powered submarines near the arctic city of Tromsø.

In 2009, the nearby and once secret Olavsvern base, in the bowels of a mountain, it was closed and sold to private interests by the government of then Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, current NATO Secretary General.

But, with increasing tensions in the region, the need has arisen a base from which Russian submarines can be tracked They navigate the nearby “Bear Gap”, a staple between their bases on the Kola Peninsula and the depths of the Atlantic.

Echoing opposition from the local population, Greenpeace criticized the Oslo initiative on the grounds that “play NATO roulette” with nature, the life of local people and relations with Russia.

Rising tensions have also led to neighboring Sweden – which is not a member of the Atlantic Alliance – to announce a 40% increase in military spending by 2025, the highest since the 1950s, is already remilitarizing the Baltic island of Gotland.

Washington and Mosú

For the first time since the 1980s, the U.S. Navy deployed an aircraft carrier to the Norwegian Sea in 2018, and a year later several other ships to Russia’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Barents Sea.

The change of administration in the United States is not expected to bring any changes.

“The United States has a long history of cooperation with Russia in the Arctic region and I hope this can continue, ”said new US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

However, Austin expressed concern about “the strengthening of the Russian military in the region and Russia’s aggressive behavior in the Arctic and around the world.”

Russia, in fact, is rearming as well.

In March 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered “to strengthen military capabilities” and “the creation and modernization of military infrastructure” in the Arctic by 2035.

The mighty northern Russian fleet, with its 86 ships, including 42 submersible, was the first to equip itself with a fourth-generation Borey-class nuclear submarine last summer.

The opening or modernization of bases, the testing of new missiles and drones, the simulation of attacks against Western sites, and increasingly distant sea and air deployments illustrate Russia’s policy of military reaffirmation.

Last year, Norwegian fighters took off 50 times to identify a total of 96 Russian aircraft flying off the coast of Norway.

Far fewer than the 500 to 600 Soviet aircraft identified each year in the mid-1980s during the Cold War, but far more than the dozen identifications that were the norm in the 2000s.

Source: AFP

PB