JANNE KUUSELA/FINLAND DEFENSE POLICY DIRECTOR The bids of Finland and Sweden to join NATO have brought the security of the Baltic Sea region into public awareness. However, Russia’s war against Ukraine also has changed the dynamics in the Arctic. Arctic “hard” security is a two-sided coin. One represents the region’s enduring strategic importance, while the other is about the geopolitics of melting polar ice. The sides are clearly connected, but they have evolved on slightly different tracks. Russia, with its vital security and economic interests in the Arctic, embodies both sides. Despite rising tensions in Europe, there has not been…
The Watch
DR. P. WHITNEY LACKENBAUER and DR. ADAM LAJEUNESSE Since Russia’s unprovoked February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the world has witnessed the further spillover of international tensions into circumpolar affairs. Maintaining peace and stability in the Arctic, within a world of heightened uncertainty, has forced NATO partners to reevaluate threats, strategic responsibilities and opportunities for deeper collaboration as Arctic allies. In August 2022, after touring the Canadian Arctic, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg published an article in the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail pointing to the myriad new threats facing the region. While the Arctic has traditionally been an area…
UNITED KINGDOM MINISTRY OF DEFENCE In search of established, proven practices for integrated deterrence, this article highlights the role of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF). This powerful military framework focuses on the High North, North Atlantic and Baltic Sea regions, and has several characteristics making it an effective option to senior decision-makers and a key element in participant nation defense. In June 2022, U.K. Chief of Defence Staff Adm. Sir Tony Radakin described the JEF as a reflection of how the U.K. and like-minded participant nations with shared operational experience and interests had pooled their high-readiness forces for global contingencies.…
SGT. JUSTIN SMITH/10TH SPECIAL FORCES GROUP (AIRBORNE) Gen. Glen D. VanHerck uses a story to illustrate why the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) are implementing a digital strategy to redefine homeland defense: In 2015, a man flew a gyrocopter through restricted airspace — undetected — before landing on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. For VanHerck, the incident is emblematic of a rapidly changing security environment that requires NORAD and USNORTHCOM to accelerate efforts to better recognize, anticipate and act — “deter, deny, respond” — to threats that could range from…
THE WATCH STAFF In an era of increased threats from potential adversaries, the United States and Canada are demonstrating their ability to defend North America across all domains during exercise Vigilant Shield. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) conducted the annual homeland defense exercise April 11-19, 2023. Vigilant Shield is a binational exercise designed to “assess and enhance the readiness of NORAD and USNORTHCOM, its components and mission partners” to defend the continent from attack, according to an April 10 news release. NORAD is a binational command between Canada and the U.S. It provides…
THE WATCH STAFF Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the commander charged with homeland defense of the United States, recently outlined the creeping influence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in North America to Congress. Incursions such as the recent one by a high-altitude spy balloon are a threat, but VanHerck and Army Gen. Laura J. Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command, reminded the House Armed Services Committee of the PRC’s increasing investment in Latin America and the Caribbean. VanHerck said the PRC is being “very aggressive” in the Bahamas, where China’s ambassador “uses the information space to undermine us each…
THE WATCH STAFF What once seemed like futuristic technology is now a necessity to defend the United States Homeland, says Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, who leads U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), delivered March 23, 2023, to the Senate Armed Services Committee. “I think the future of homeland defense is vastly different than what we see today,” he said of the “future types of systems” that will be needed, according to a March 24 story by the defense technology website C4ISRNET. “It’s likely (to include) autonomous platforms, airborne, maritime platforms, unmanned platforms with domain-awareness…
ELENA FARNSWORTH Things are heating up at the top of the world. With heightened international tensions and a warming Arctic region, the United States’ National Strategy for the Arctic, released in 2022, prioritizes countering and deterring Russia and the People’s Republic of China in the High North. As such, the Pentagon is reallocating and increasing resources and future personnel at the U.S. Department of Defense’s northernmost installation, which was previously known as Thule Space Force Base (SFB). On April 6, 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense renamed it Pituffik Space Base, which recognizes Greenlandic cultural heritage and better reflects its…
THE WATCH STAFF President Vladimir Putin hailed a Russian Navy frigate departing from the Northern Fleet’s home port of Severomorsk in January 2023 as having no equal. Equipped with Russia’s most sophisticated sea-based Tsirkon hypersonic missile system, the frigate set out on a global voyage to join naval vessels from China and South Africa for a joint military exercise in February. The warship produced sensational headlines, which Russia used for propaganda as a signal to the United States and its NATO allies. The reality is much different. The Russian frigate, the Admiral Gorshkov, is being continuously monitored, tracked and contested…
THE WATCH STAFF The mission of Arctic search and rescue at its most basic is saving lives. But when the United States military trains for combat search and rescue and personnel recovery (SAR/PR) with allies, it also strengthens operational capabilities. “The ability to operate and succeed given the … harsh Arctic operating environment forever complicates any rescue, which is why it is so very important to exercise and reinforce rescue skill sets and capability,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Joseph Alkire III, deputy commander of the 611th Air Operations Center based at Alaska’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER). Alkire’s comments came…