Top-secret submarine may settle Russia’s claim in the Arctic

A unique Arctic expedition has brought a top-secret Russian submarine into the limelight. The AS-12 bathyscaphe Losharik has now been enlisted to help Russia gain evidence of its right to territorial waters in the Arctic. 

Moscow is prepared to present evidence to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea that would expand Russia’s territorial waters in the Arctic, thus asserting its right to the bed of the Arctic that is extremely rich in hydrocarbons. Russia filed a similar application once before, but the bid was turned down due to a lack of geological samples. The new evidence has been obtained by AS-12 Losharik – Russia’s top-secret deep-sea nuclear-powered bathyscaphe.

The North Pole expedition was undertaken in late September as part of the Arctic 2012 research project. The mission required working at a depth of 1.5-1.8 miles for 20 days. The deep-sea station collected earth samples using robotic arms, a dredging device (a rock filtration system), a clamp bucket (a scoop with a video camera) and a hydrostatic sampler. The results of the sample tests will be released in early 2013, when they are also expected to be handed over to the United Nations.

Until recently, the competing territorial claims to the Arctic made by Russia, Norway, Canada, the U.S. and Denmark have been ineffectual, since, apart from political statements, none of the countries has been able to provide any factual evidence to justify their claims. If Losharik’s recent operation does not close the matter for good, then it at least puts Russia ahead of the game. Before Losharik, no one had been able to bring up any actual samples from the seabed that could formally prove Russia right.

Meanwhile, little is actually known about the main character in the story – the nuclear-powered deep-sea bathyscaphe AS-12, nicknamed Losharik (NATO reporting name NORSUB-5).

One of the reasons behind the scarce public knowledge is the fact that the submarine was created for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry and, given the specific nature of the ministry’s mission, was never intended to be declassified – just like an undercover spy. However, Moscow eventually decided to go all in and play for the sake of winning the territorial dispute.

The submarine was dubbed Losharik for its extraordinary shape: Its hull consists of spherical titanium modules. The nickname comes from the name of a Soviet cartoon character – a funny little horse with a body made up of small spheres.

According to its engineers, the unusual hull construction permits the 196-foot-long bathyscaphe to withstand the enormous pressure of ocean depths of up to 3.7 miles. Losharik is powered by a small nuclear reactor with a fundamentally new model of nuclear steam generating plant: the KTP-7I Fenix. The reactor enables the bathyscaphe to travel at a speed of up to 30 knots (37 miles) per hour and does not limit the time it can stay submerged in virtually any way. The crew consists of 25 officers.

The bathyscaphe is carried by the K-129 Orenburg submarine, which is a Project 667BDR Kalmar strategic nuclear submarine redesigned specifically for the purpose.

While assigned to Russia’s Northern Fleet, the submarine is not actually part of it, as it remains an asset of the Main Intelligence Directorate. It is stationed at Olenya Bay, where Russia’s naval spies are based.

While the AS-12 does not carry any weapons, it still poses a serious threat to the national security of many countries, since it is equipped to perform intelligence and diversion operations at depths out of reach of any other vessel in the world. 

The kind of operations that the vessel could perform include using its mechanical arms not only to collect seabed samples, but also to disrupt telecommunications between continents or, conversely, plant wiretaps, which, even if detected, would be impossible to remove because of the depths.

There is also an apocalyptic theory that the work of designing the bathyscaphe was launched back when a nuclear conflict between Moscow and Washington was still on the table. The bathyscaphe is believed to have been intended to become an invincible carrier of a gigantic T-15 thermonuclear torpedo (5 feet in diameter) developed by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Andrei Sakharov.

The Soviets believed that, if detonated at a depth of 3.7 miles, the torpedo could generate an unprecedented and deadly tsunami that would wash away an entire coast of the United States, West or East.

Whatever their past plans, Moscow and Washington are now partners intent on resolving their disagreements at the negotiating table. This was the main reason why, in the mid-1990s, Russia almost stopped financing the Losharik project. The country even invited the United States to be a co-investor, suggesting that the deep-sea bathyscaphe could be involved in rescue operations.

While Losharik failed to become a rescue vessel, it has nevertheless proved a very valuable national security asset.

Russia deploys Arctic troops

The Arctic region is attracting an increasing amount of attention from the global community. In large part, this is due to the fixing of international external borders to the continental shelf, the transit opportunities afforded by the Northern and Southern Sea Routes, and the promising prospects for exploitation of the Arctic’s natural resources.

On Oct. 25, as part of an ongoing Command Post Exercise (CPX) in the Western Military District, the coastal forces of the Northern Fleet made Russia’s first ever sea-borne landing on the shores of the uninhabited Kotelny Island.

According to Capt. Vadim Serga, head of the Western Military District Press Service, “the deployment operation involved the study of new navigable areas and military landing opportunities in different locations along the Arctic shore. Reconnaissance of areas on the islands of the Novosibirsk Archipelago was conducted, as was field testing of military equipment and ordnance under Arctic conditions.”

This is the first time that combat training of this kind has focused on protecting civilian facilities – research stations, drilling facilities and energy-industry installations located in the Arctic region. These are the reasons the large destroyer “Vice-Admiral Kulakov” and the heavy nuclear-powered battle cruiser “Pyotr Veliky” were stationed in coastal Arctic waters of the Northern Sea Route.

More than 7,000 military personnel and 150 objects of military equipment have been involved in the CPX. Training exercises will be conducted in the military testing zones of the Barents Sea, the sub-Arctic areas of the Northern Sea Route, the coastal regions of the Pechenga Area in Murmansk Region, and on the Sredny and Rybachy Peninsulas.

Russia is not the first country to announce the deployment of military bases in the Arctic.

In early 2012, Canada announced that it was setting up an Arctic base on Cornwallis Island. Denmark, too, is making preparations to expand its military presence in the Arctic Ocean. As early as 2009, Denmark mentioned that it was setting up a special Arctic Military Command with a rapid reaction force. A year later, Norway stepped up to requests from its own Polar Command officers, and the U.S. and Canada began conducting regular military exercises in the Arctic.

This level of military activity is understandable. Competition for influence in the Arctic has increased considerably, especially since climate warming began in the area. It is estimated that nearly one quarter of the world’s untapped hydrocarbon resources is located in the Arctic.

The Arctic is a region where the economic and geopolitical interests of several countries coincide, which increases the area’s importance as a transit zone. Konstantin Sivkov, vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, states that, “In a time when the center of economic growth is migrating from Europe to the Asia-Pacific region, the significance of the Northern Sea Route becomes more important.”

“In addition, a route via the Arctic is not only the shortest for shipping, but also for strategic aviation and intercontinental ballistic missiles,” Sivkov said.

The Northern Sea Route

 The Northern Sea Route is the shortest sea route between European Russia and the Far East. The alternative to this route would be a transport course via the Suez or Panama Canals. However, if the distance by ship from the Port of Murmansk to Yokohama (Japan) via the Suez Canal is 12,480 nautical miles, then the same trip via the Northern Sea Route is only 5,770 nautical miles. The principle obstacle for sea-going vessels on the Northern Sea Route is the ice, but contemporary ice-breakers are capable of ensuring year-round navigation.

“The capacity for the deployment of powerful missile defense systems in the region and nuclear submarines capable of delivering missile payloads has huge significance for all major world players. According to my sources, American submarines have been patrolling the waters of the Arctic Basin – specifically the Barents Sea – since the 1990s.”

It is clear that the Navy will take principle responsibility for defending Russia’s installations in the Arctic. Russian defense spending for the period through 2020 includes new vessels for the Northern Fleet.

“We need ships that are capable of serving long term in the Arctic zone,” said Rear Adm. Vassily Lyashok, chief of planning for the Navy Development Section, as well as deputy chief of general staff for the Russian Navy. “They need to be nuclear-powered and equipped with ice-breaking capabilities.

“A second requirement is that we need ships in the Arctic zone of the so-called “coastal water” category – particularly in the Barents Sea, but also eventually in the Karsk Se,” he added. “These ships should be capable of maintaining favorable operating conditions and safeguarding maritime economic activity.”

Moreover, media sources report that Russia will place a squadron of Mig-31 long-range fighter interceptors on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic, in order to safeguard its territory against possible threats from the North.

Russia has also stepped up efforts to strengthen its Polar border infrastructure. Secretary Nikolai Patrushev of the Russian Security Council said in August that the Northern Sea Route would be strengthened by the creation of military naval bases and border services.

By 2021, according to Igor Palutsa, head of the FSB’s Coastguard Department, 11 new border centers will be set up. A number of seaports and dual-purpose airfields are also planned.

Russia to Base MiG-31 Interceptors in Arctic

The Russian Defense Ministry is to base MiG-31 long-range interceptors at the Rogachyovo Arctic base on the island of Novaya Zemlya by the end of the year to defend against attack from the north, Izvestia reported on Tuesday quoting military sources.

"The MiG-31 squadron will be the main element of Russia's developing anti-missile defense system - the MiG-31 is capable of intercepting not only strike aircraft, but also cruise missiles with nuclear warheads from the Barents Sea to the shores of the Laptev Sea," the source said.

Military analyst Anatoly Tsyganok says the MiG-31BM has a range of 900 miles (1,450 km) on internal fuel, which can be extended to 3,355 miles (5,400 km) with air-to-air refuelling.

Although Russia does not have complete ground-based radar coverage across its northern areas, he explained, the two-seat MiG-31 can intercept targets up to 124 miles (200 km) away thanks to its advanced radar and long-range missiles.

The MiG-31, the fastest fighter-interceptor in service anywhere in the world, has recently been the subject of a comprehensive upgrade to MiG-31BM standard.

The modernized version boasts upgraded avionics and digital data-links, a new multimode radar, color multifunction cockpit displays, and a more powerful fire-control system. It can simultaneously track up to 10 targets.

Earlier this year, the Air Force said it was testing a new advanced air-to-air missile, which aviation analysts told RIA Novosti was likely to be the K-37M (also known as RVV-BD or AA-X-13 to NATO). This could be deployed on the MiG-31BM, significantly enhancing its long-range interception performance against cruise missiles.

An Air Force representative said there will be no problem basing the advanced supersonic MiGs on the frozen island, as the airfield has a good runway and a full range of facilities for those based and living there, including their families.

Russia has based the 63 Fighter Squadron equipped with Sukhoi Su-27 fighters at Rogachyovo since 1993.

Greenpeace ships shadow drilling vessels to Arctic

Greenpeace is shadowing two Shell drilling vessels that left Seattle to start their journey to the Arctic this week.

Shell Oil spokesman Curtis Smith said Friday that as long as Greenpeace adheres to maritime law and respects a court order requiring it to stay a certain distance away from the drilling ships, the company has no concerns.

The Greenpeace team stopped in Kodiak this week for three days and met with the Coast Guard to discuss the trip, part of the environmental group's "Save the Arctic" campaign. The Esperanza will shadow Shell's drilling vessels as they make their way north. The Greenpeace crew will then spend time documenting Arctic environmental conditions.

The Kodiak meeting was necessary to go over safety concerns and to understand what Greenpeace is trying to accomplish, said Coast Guard Capt. Gregory Sanial.

"With everything, especially in the Arctic, what we're looking to achieve is safety for life at sea for everybody on the water," Sanial said. "Our dialogue with Greenpeace isn't any different than it is with Shell."

The Coast Guard was also concerned with Greenpeace's plans to use small submarines to document the Bering Sea's marine canyons.

"I did explain to them that the Coast Guard has no capability to rescue that submarine," Sanial said. "If it gets in trouble at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, there is very little the Coast Guard can do."

Greenpeace plans to use two small submarines - one carrying a single person, the other two people - to take scientists underwater to gather information.

"Our intent is to document that pristine environment in places that no submarine-manned expeditions have been before and to bring back to the world images," said lead Arctic campaigner Jackie Dragon.

The information, he said, is especially important "as the industrialization of the high north begins."

Russia to Reopen Arctic Airbases

Selected air units of Russia’s Western military district will start this year preparations to return to abandoned Arctic airfields, the commander of the district’s aviation Maj. Gen. Igor Makushev said on Wednesday.

Military airfields in the Arctic were used extensively in the Soviet era, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 they have been generally mothballed.

“We will start reopening airfields on Novaya Zemlya and in Naryan-Mar as early as this summer,” Makushev told a news conference in St. Petersburg.

Plans for next year include the reopening of a military airfield on Graham Bell Island, which is part of Franz Josef Land.

Russia has announced plans to deploy a combined-arms force to protect its political and economic interests in the Arctic region by 2020, including military, border and coastal guard units to guarantee Russia's military security in diverse military and political circumstances.

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said in July 2011 that two arctic brigades would be stationed in “Murmansk or Arkhangelsk or some other place.”

The new cold war: Militaries eying Arctic resources

To the world's military leaders, the debate over climate change is long over. They are preparing for a new kind of Cold War in the Arctic, anticipating that rising temperatures there will open up a treasure trove of resources, long-dreamed-of sea lanes and a slew of potential conflicts.

By Arctic standards, the region is already buzzing with military activity, and experts believe that will increase significantly in the years ahead.

Last month, Norway wrapped up one of the largest Arctic maneuvers ever -- Exercise Cold Response -- with 16,300 troops from 14 countries training on the ice for everything from high intensity warfare to terror threats. Attesting to the harsh conditions, five Norwegian troops were killed when their C-130 Hercules aircraft crashed near the summit of Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest mountain.

The U.S., Canada and Denmark held major exercises two months ago, and in an unprecedented move, the military chiefs of the eight main Arctic powers -- Canada, the U.S., Russia, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland -- gathered at a Canadian military base last week to specifically discuss regional security issues.

SUMMARY

ON ICE: World eyeballing natural resources in Arctic Circle, as warming planet makes access easier:

13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its untapped natural gas is in the Arctic

Russia the most aggressive in establishing itself in the area

Norway recently wrapped up one of the largest Arctic maneuvers ever

None of this means a shooting war is likely at the North Pole any time soon. But as the number of workers and ships increases in the High North to exploit oil and gas reserves, so will the need for policing, border patrols and -- if push comes to shove -- military muscle to enforce rival claims.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its untapped natural gas is in the Arctic. Shipping lanes could be regularly open across the Arctic by 2030 as rising temperatures continue to melt the sea ice, according to a National Research Council analysis commissioned by the U.S. Navy last year.

What countries should do about climate change remains a heated political debate. But that has not stopped north-looking militaries from moving ahead with strategies that assume current trends will continue.

Russia, Canada and the United States have the biggest stakes in the Arctic. With its military budget stretched thin by Iraq, Afghanistan and more pressing issues elsewhere, the United States has been something of a reluctant northern power, though its nuclear-powered submarine fleet, which can navigate for months underwater and below the ice cap, remains second to none.

Russia -- one-third of which lies within the Arctic Circle -- has been the most aggressive in establishing itself as the emerging region's superpower.

Rob Huebert, an associate political science professor at the University of Calgary in Canada, said Russia has recovered enough from its economic troubles of the 1990s to significantly rebuild its Arctic military capabilities, which were a key to the overall Cold War strategy of the Soviet Union, and has increased its bomber patrols and submarine activity.

He said that has in turn led other Arctic countries -- Norway, Denmark and Canada -- to resume regional military exercises that they had abandoned or cut back on after the Soviet collapse. Even non-Arctic nations such as France have expressed interest in deploying their militaries to the Arctic.

"We have an entire ocean region that had previously been closed to the world now opening up," Huebert said. "There are numerous factors now coming together that are mutually reinforcing themselves, causing a buildup of military capabilities in the region. This is only going to increase as time goes on."

Noting that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe, the U.S. Navy in 2009 announced a beefed-up Arctic Roadmap by its own task force on climate change that called for a three-stage strategy to increase readiness, build cooperative relations with Arctic nations and identify areas of potential conflict.

"We want to maintain our edge up there," said Cmdr. Ian Johnson, the captain of the USS Connecticut, which is one of the U.S. Navy's most Arctic-capable nuclear submarines and was deployed to the North Pole last year. "Our interest in the Arctic has never really waned. It remains very important."

But the U.S. remains ill-equipped for large-scale Arctic missions, according to a simulation conducted by the U.S. Naval War College. A summary released last month found the Navy is "inadequately prepared to conduct sustained maritime operations in the Arctic" because it lacks ships able to operate in or near Arctic ice, support facilities and adequate communications.

"The findings indicate the Navy is entering a new realm in the Arctic," said Walter Berbrick, a War College professor who participated in the simulation. "Instead of other nations relying on the U.S. Navy for capabilities and resources, sustained operations in the Arctic region will require the Navy to rely on other nations for capabilities and resources."

He added that although the U.S. nuclear submarine fleet is a major asset, the Navy has severe gaps elsewhere -- it doesn't have any icebreakers, for example. The only one in operation belongs to the Coast Guard. The U.S. is currently mulling whether to add more icebreakers.

Acknowledging the need to keep apace in the Arctic, the United States is pouring funds into figuring out what climate change will bring, and has been working closely with the scientific community to calibrate its response.

"The Navy seems to be very on board regarding the reality of climate change and the especially large changes we are seeing in the Arctic," said Mark C. Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences University of Colorado. "There is already considerable collaboration between the Navy and civilian scientists and I see this collaboration growing in the future."

The most immediate challenge may not be war -- both military and commercial assets are sparse enough to give all countries elbow room for a while -- but whether militaries can respond to a disaster.

Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the London-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said militaries probably will have to rescue their own citizens in the Arctic before any confrontations arise there.

"Catastrophic events, like a cruise ship suddenly sinking or an environmental accident related to the region's oil and gas exploration, would have a profound impact in the Arctic," she said. "The risk is not militarization; it is the lack of capabilities while economic development and human activity dramatically increases that is the real risk."

China planning 200m state of the art icebreaker for service in 2014

A new icebreaker is scheduled to join Xuelong, China’s only Antarctic research vessel, in 2014, highlighting Beijing’s ambition for further exploration and scientific study in polar regions.

Xuelong, the current Antarctic vessel has just returned from its 28th expedition.

At a news conference in Shanghai on Sunday to mark the return of Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, from its 28th Antarctic expedition, officials said the new vessel is being designed and will undergo tests starting in two years. One Arctic expedition and two Antarctic expeditions are planned by 2015.

“We are in the process of conceptual design for the new vessel and it is going smoothly,” said Weng Lixin, a deputy director of the State Oceanic Administration. “The new ship will be put into service in 2014.”

The new vessel is more of a true icebreaker and will be more effective in exploring than Xuelong, which is partly used to deliver supplies, according to Wang Shuoren, an officer on Xuelong.

He said the new icebreaker will incorporate the most advanced technology and will be more adapted to use around polar regions. It will be designed to break through sea ice more than 1.5 meters thick, topped with 0.2 meters of snow.

According to Zhao Ping, an official with the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, China will partner with the world's leading icebreaker manufacturers in producing the vessel.

At the press conference, she said the new vessel will be designed by an overseas company and be built by a Chinese shipbuilder. “We opened the bidding for the vessel's design to the world and now it has been settled,” she said.

According to an earlier report, the new vessel will have a cruising radius of 20,000 nautical miles and cost about 200 million dollars.

China has been active in polar exploration and scientific research since 1984 and has built four polar research stations: Arctic Yellow River Station in Svalbard, Norway; Great Wall Station in the Shetland Islands, west Antarctica; Zhongshan Station in the Larsemann Hills, east Antarctica; and Kunlun Station, located on Dome A, the highest place in Antarctica.

In its latest expedition starting in October, Xuelong delivered supplies to the country's Antarctic stations and conducted various scientific research tasks, including a polar environmental survey and the installation of a survey telescope.

Other major achievements during the 163-day expedition were the installation of a 100-meter deflection tube for deep core drilling at Zhongshan Station and the drilling of a 120-meter ice core, catapulting China to a leading role in glaciology studies.

Officials said China plans to add two more survey telescopes on Antarctica in future.

The Xuelong was purchased to Ukraine in 1993, and was basically a supply vessel converted for polar tasks with limited capacity to operate in ice conditions.