The Watch

THE WATCH STAFF As strategic competition heats up in the Arctic, the United Kingdom is offering to take part in cold-weather exercises with the Canadian military and to commit its nuclear-powered submarines to the endeavor. Gen. Sir Nick Carter, the top British military commander, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) that his country is “keen to cooperate” and learn more about how to survive and fight in the region. Carter said that Britain would also like to help “Canada do what Canada needs to do as an Arctic country,” according to a September 24, 2021, CBC News story. Canada has historically…

THE WATCH STAFF The U.S. Navy took another flight toward realizing its “air wing of the future” when an unmanned tanker conducted the first aerial refueling with an F-35C Joint Strike Fighter. The F-35C is the third type of Navy aircraft to top off from the MQ-25 Stingray, which is designed to deploy to carrier strike groups. The flight with Boeing’s unmanned test aircraft was conducted September 13 near MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Illinois. During the three-hour flight, an F-35C from the Air Test Wing and Evaluation Squadron Two Three (VX-23) performed formation evaluations, wake surveys, drogue tracking and…

THE WATCH STAFF Russia’s disinformation campaigns are built on five “pillars” that work together to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda and sow division, according to the U.S. Department of State (DOS). By understanding how those pillars operate — especially the use of “proxy sources” — the United States and the West can counteract Russia’s tactics, DOS official John Spykerman said. Spykerman spoke on “Information Resilience: Countering Russian Propaganda and Disinformation” during a September 29, 2021, video conference as part of the Distinguished Speaker series presented by the Royal United Services Institute of Nova Scotia and U.S. Northern Command. His talk drew from…

Nataliia Haluhan The Arctic ice cap has melted significantly over the past 50 years. Such climate change not only creates challenges and opportunities in terms of changing the region’s accessibility, it also shapes a new political context in the area. As a consequence, the security landscape is being rapidly modified, and that has implications in the new strategic documents of key regional and extraregional players. The situation is becoming more uncertain in light of Russia’s Arctic Council chairmanship, which started this year and is expected to last until 2023. Assessing the political aggressiveness levels of the main actors can provide…

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The U.S. should explore ways to expand its military contacts with the Russians, potentially to include allowing observers from each country to watch the other’s combat exercises, in a broad effort to increase transparency and reduce the risk of conflict, the top U.S. military officer said. U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met in Finland for six hours September 22, 2021, with his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff. Speaking to two reporters traveling with him back to the U.S., Milley said that military contacts between…

THE WATCH STAFF President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador inaugurated the 2021 Feria Aerospacial Mexico (FAMEX) at the new Felipe Angeles International Airport with a speech that embraced modernization. “This fair is an example that … Mexico will continue to prosper, our country will continue to modernize,” Lopez Obrador said in his address at the aerospace fair, according to the Spanish EFE news agency. The United States was the guest country of honor at FAMEX, which was held September 22-25 in Santa Lucía. The airport, which is about 30 miles north of Mexico City, will serve the sprawling metropolis and is scheduled…

THE WATCH STAFF If a reminder is needed of Alaska’s strategic importance for the security of the Arctic and North America, U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. David Krumm offers two helpful axioms: “It’s all about location, location, location.” “Tracers work both ways.” One applies to business and real estate; the other references luminescent military ammunition — “tracers.” Of the first axiom, Krumm, commander of the Alaska Region of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Alaskan Command, said he can get to anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere from Alaska in less than nine hours. And just 55 miles of…

THE WATCH STAFF The leadership of the United States Air Force is delivering a unified message: The U.S. can maintain air superiority over its potential adversaries through modernization — especially when it comes to the next generation of combat aircraft. Senior leaders also agree on their top challenger: China. U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., speaking at the National Press Club on August 6, 2021, warned that Beijing could overcome U.S. air superiority by 2035. Brown, whose remarks were broadcast by the U.S. television network C-SPAN, said the Air Force can hold on to its…

PÁL DUNAY/GEORGE C. MARSHALL EUROPEAN CENTER FOR SECURITY STUDIES The Russian Federation is one of six states that border the Arctic Ocean. It has the longest Arctic coastline — more than 24,000 kilometers (14,913 miles). More than 2 million Russians (3% of the country’s population) live above the Arctic Circle, the largest population in any Arctic state. Russia’s Arctic region accounts for 11% of the country’s gross domestic product. The exploitation of energy — including 80% of its known natural gas reserves — and other natural resources in its High North bears an outsized importance for Russia. These factors alone…

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The general who leads U.S. efforts to thwart foreign-based cyberattacks and punish those responsible says he’s mounting a “surge” to fight incursions that have debilitated government agencies and companies responsible for critical infrastructure. U.S. Army Gen. Paul Nakasone broadly described “an intense focus” by government specialists to better find and share information about cyberattacks and “impose costs when necessary.” Those costs include publicly linking adversarial countries to high-profile attacks and exposing the means by which those attacks were carried out, he said. “Even six months ago, we probably would have said, ‘Ransomware, that’s criminal activity,’” Nakasone said.…