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
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…
THE WATCH STAFF The barren and unforgiving Arctic terrain of the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex (JPARC) is where the United States military and its allies train in extreme conditions. High above the vast landscape that is the size of the U.S. state of Indiana, the world’s most advanced warplane — the F-35A II Lightning stealth fighter — conducts operations, too. The multirole F-35A II rules its domain no matter the environment. “We have a motto that ‘we’re ready to go at 50 below [zero degrees Fahrenheit],’ ” and it does get that cold sometimes, Col. David Berkland, commander of…
THE WATCH STAFF Navy SEALs aboard black-rubber raiding boats skim across a choppy sea off Alaska under the watchful eye of an F-22 Raptor. Later, they parachute from high above their target zone near an isolated coastal town. The commandos conduct reconnaissance in the fog using drones equipped with the latest in artificial-intelligence technology. They operate from an expeditionary camp of Quonset huts supported by heavy-lift CH-47 Chinook helicopters from the Alaska National Guard. This latest chapter in an ongoing series of exercises known as Operation Noble Defender fulfilled its purpose once again — demonstrating the ability of U.S. Northern…
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Mexico’s Army and National Guard announced July 7, 2022, a “historic” seizure of more than a half-ton of fentanyl at a warehouse in the northern city of Culiacan. Mexican prosecutors followed up that news a day later by reporting that a half-million fentanyl pills were confiscated at another warehouse in the city. Culiacan is the capital of Sinaloa state, home to the drug cartel of the same name. “This is the largest seizure in history of this lethal drug,” Assistant Public Safety Secretary Ricardo Mejia said of the first haul, which took place July 2 and netted…
THE WATCH STAFF An experimental satellite now in orbit will help the United States refine the development of technology to identify and track hypersonic missiles and better protect the homeland. The Wide Field of View Testbed (WFOV) satellite, pictured, launched July 1, 2022, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida bound for geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the equator. Its mission is to “explore the ability of a single sensor to perform strategic and tactical missions simultaneously by continuously monitoring up to one-third of the Earth’s surface,” according to a June 28 news release from the WFOV manufacturer, Boeing’s…
THE WATCH STAFF The United States Embassy in Nassau celebrated America’s Independence Day aboard the USS Lassen on July 1, 2022, while the warship was visiting the Bahamas. The festivities also honored the special relationship between the U.S. and the Caribbean nation. U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Usha E. Pitts and Adm. Daryl L. Caudle, commander U.S. Fleet Forces Command, hosted the event aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer that docked at Prince George Wharf in Nassau Harbor. Along with Lassen commander Christopher P. Turmel, they welcomed about 150 guests to the celebration of America’s 246th birthday, which was July 4. The Bahamian guests…
THE WATCH STAFF The groundwork for large-scale United States military exercises is often laid one community at a time. In Alaska and the Arctic region, cooperation with civilian and tribal leaders is crucial to maintaining a vigilant and mission-ready homeland defense for North America. An example of such exchanges: U.S. military personnel from Special Operations Command North (SOCNORTH) and the Alaska Air National Guard (AKANG) worked June 5-8, 2022, with tribal and city leaders on Alaska’s St. Lawrence Island to coordinate for future exercises such as Arctic Edge. (U.S. Northern Command’s Arctic Edge is a multiservice U.S. and Canadian exercise…
REUTERS NATO agreed in June 2022 to put over 300,000 troops at high readiness beginning in 2023, up from 40,000 previously, in a new military lineup designed to better counter Russia. The move replaces the NATO Response Force, which was for years the first to respond to any Russian attack or other crisis. The new model resembles the way NATO forces were organized during the Cold War. At that time, specific allied countries were assigned the defense of specific sectors of the border between Western and Eastern Germany. “Today, NATO leaders decided a fundamental shift in our defense and deterrence…