END OF WORLD

I took the following article from the TIMES OF LONDON.

I am tired of hearing or reading all of the hostilities in the wiorld. This article tells you how it is going to end.

China has operated a research facility on the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago since 2004 and has built a fleet of “Snow Dragon” polar oceanography vessels. 

Chinese investors have also tried to acquire land, ports and an airport lease in Iceland, Greenland and the Arctic north of Norway, Sweden and Finland.

The US worries that China’s research activity in the region is not purely for the sake of scientific inquiry or economic gain. They suspect Beijing may be gathering "dual-use" data and seeking Arctic footholds for a potential future conflict with America.

Military presence and missile tests

Russian troops during winter war games (Knyazevfoto/Shutterstock)

War has seldom troubled the Arctic and, until very recently, the US had seemed to be bent on scaling back its Cold War-era military presence in the region. 

America’s one remaining outpost on Greenland, the Pituffik space base, is a shadow of the vast strategic bomber and missile defence facility it once was. 

Pituffik space base, northern Greenland (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AP)

Arctic warfare training has been pared back; the last nuclear submarines designed for hunting Soviet submersibles under the ice were retired in the 1990s and Washington now relies on Finland to make up for its depleted fleet of icebreakers. 

The US does take part in Nato’s Nordic Response, a military training exercise hosted by Norway. It has been held every other year since 2006 and also involves the UK.

Royal Marines training in the Norwegian Arctic (LPhot Stainer-Hutchins/MoD)

At the same time, Russia has been moving in, building at least six new military bases, refurbishing 16 deepwater ports and establishing 14 airfields since the turn of the millennium. 

In November, it launched an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile, the Burevestnik or Storm Petrel, from a site on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.

A Burevestnik missile test-fired by Russia

Moscow claimed the weapon flew nearly 9,000 miles over the course of 15 hours, which would mean it could in theory hit any target in the western world from the Russian mainland. 

The US also has an eye on China. The People’s Liberation Army has been conducting training exercises and procuring equipment for cold-weather operations.

Chinese soldiers patrol China's border with Tajikistan (Alamy)

Beijing has recently joined Russia in probing Alaskan airspace, including with nuclear-capable bombers.

Trump has claimed that the seas around Greenland are teeming with Russian and Chinese warships. Nordic officials dispute this as bunkum.

But the broader concern is real enough. One Norwegian military officer says his country has detected increasing Russian submarine activity in the Barents Sea and worries that, in the event of a war with Nato, the Kremlin might launch a diversionary land offensive into Finnmark, Norway’s northernmost county.

Design: Kathia Mestanza
Graphics: Megan Beckwith, Ellie Covington
Production: Lauren Davis, Jeremy Calvert
Picture research: Ian Hinchcliffe, Andrew Mitchell
Opening reel: Darren Burchett

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