The High North remains the “shortest and least defended threat sector” to the U.S., the deputy commander of U.S. Northern Command said Tuesday.
It’s important for allies and the joint force operating in the region to monitor domain awareness, from the sea to space, and to respond if necessary, Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Carden said the day after the Pentagon released its updated Arctic strategy.
The strategy is built on three pillars: enhance the U.S. and allied presence already in the Arctic; engage with other federal agencies, indigenous tribes, the state of Alaska and its six other NATO allies on what’s needed to preserve security; and exercise more frequently.
To do that, the United States must invest in the infrastructure that meets changed security challenges posed by “cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons” and a fast warming climate that is eroding shorelines and affecting bases and ports, said Iris Ferguson, the principal deputy secretary of defense for the Arctic and a key author of the strategy. Improved broadband communications are critical to maintaining a strong defense and the ability to project power if needed, the panel members appearing at the Wilson Center event agreed.
Ferguson cited the commercial and governmental sharing of satellite communications as a step forward that benefits civilians living and working in the Northern Command area of responsibility as well as the military personnel assigned and operating there.
Addressing the emerging security gaps “takes time, takes resources and takes expertise,” but the funds available for the Arctic versus the immediate pressing needs of other regions such as the Indo-Pacific, Ukraine and the Middle East remain a reality, Carden said.
At a Pentagon press briefing on Monday, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said: “Rest assured that the department is investing in the Arctic across all domains. We’ve invested in ground and air capabilities and infrastructure, including in the development of a system of sensors that will provide enhanced air and maritime domain awareness and in extreme cold weather equipment and gear.”
“We must improve our domain awareness and enhance our ability to detect and respond with our Canadian allies to threats to the homeland,” Ferguson said at the Pentagon briefing.
Hicks added that spending on space capabilities will “provide a clear picture of the Arctic.” The warming climate adds the prospect of “ice-free summers” by 2030, she said.
“[The] Navy has launched several research and development efforts to enhance capabilities that enable more accurate modeling and predictions” there, Hicks said.
Climate change is fundamentally altering the Arctic, and with it, geopolitics and U.S. defense missions, Hicks said. Ferguson said at the Wilson Center that increased floating sea ice produced by warming waters distorts sonar readings.
There could also be a struggle for resources in the Arctic due to the U.S. and European allies focusing on the Russo-Ukraine War, Maj. Gen. Odd-Harald Hagen, Norway’s defense attaché in Washington, said at the Wilson Center.
While the U.S. cannot fully fund all the security requirements that Washington faces, there are ways to stretch dollars, Carden said. Ferguson mentioned the redesignation of an F-16 squadron’s mission from training to interceptor as one example of doing that inside Defense Department.
Hicks said an international example comes in the United States-Canada-Finland agreement on collaborating to build icebreakers.
“Building icebreakers is hard,” Ferguson said at Wilson. It’s particularly for the United States, which has not built a heavy icebreaker in decades.
Allied cooperation “is not only for icebreakers,” Ferguson said, but also to meet the goals of the Arctic Strategy and administration’s National Security Strategy.
Hagen suggested following acquisition strategies like those used for the P-8A Poseidon and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Lightning II, to decrease costs and forge interoperability. Multiple countries purchase both platforms.
It can also come from communicating between nations, he said. Canada and Norway should be in close talks on designing, building and fielding long-range drones.
Likewise, open architecture approaches can help technological advances at lower costs “without stumbling into the primes” with their proprietary interest included in the production contract, he said.
“What do we really want to achieve” in the Arctic and overall security, Hagen asked rhetorically in calling for more information and intelligence sharing. “We need to find ways to cut bureaucratic red tape.”
