As number of US media informed, US Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer announced his plans to have some warships make the transit in the Arctic in a few months.
“The Navy may follow up October’s carrier strike group operations in the Arctic with another foray into the icy High North, with leadership considering sending a group of ships into a trans-Arctic shipping lane this summer,” he said at a Center for a New American Security January 8, 2019.Four decades ago, in climate of intense Cold war confrontation and nuclear dangers, when American and Soviet ballistic missile submarines and the attack subs that trailed them roamed the oceans peace researchers grew intensely worried about the strategic instability wrought by such dangerous cat and mouse maneuvers. That in turn led to innovative proposals for anti-submarine-warfare-zones as one way of easing tensions and, especially, as a means of reducing the risks that mishaps or miscommunications would escalate out of control. The Arctic has always figured prominently in those proposals. But the pettiest thing is that the Extreme North has been loosing this status. While the different states continue to affirm the absence of Arctic-specific military threats, build up in arms is rather obvious.
Recently the Norwegian radiation protection agency (DSA) informed that the number of nuclear submarines and submarines bearing nuclear-armed intercontinental-range ballistic missiles following along the Norwegian coast up to the Arctic has tripled for the last few years.
Thus, if a couple of years ago DSA registered 10-15 US, British or French subs, nowadays this number 30-40 (just in 2018 – 27!).
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https://www.aftenposten.no/norge/i/WLP48L/Ubatjakten-utenfor-Norge-er-trappet-kraftig-opp-Na-er-antallet-atomdrevne-ubater-i-norske-havner-tredobler)
So it means that the threat of ecological catastrophe has tripled as well!
And it’s without mentioning a great number of Russian subs!
Taking into consideration US plans to send a group of ships into a trans-Arctic shipping lane this summer the situation is getting worse.
Environmentalists mustn’t be mute! We need to take urgent steps to save the Arctic!
