Defending Canadian Arctic Sovereignty

[YZT580]

No one in his right mind would ever believe that we risk having an invasion from the north that would require some form of significant military response.  The development that is needed is in infrastructure and job opportunities to service our most northern residents/citizens and to provide some form of realistic response to assist those who run into serious problems: be they local fishermen/hunters, yachtsmen attempting the ridiculous or cruise ships intent on making money.  For all of those groups having locally based and knowledgeable assets in position to reach out is important and it validates our claim to sovereignty in those areas.  We, that is Canada,stands to profit significantly from the resources that are buried in the Arctic but those treasure troves are not going to be located and exploited without significant investment and risk.  The ideas expressed here are actually quite cheap as infrastructure development projects go and could easily be funded by the proposed infrastructure investment that features in the Liberals election platform.  And for a change it would actually serve a valid purpose and save lives. 

As for roads, forget it.  Even up until the end of WW2 most of Georgian Bay was serviced by ship, not by road.  The CPR relied on ferry service from Port McNicol and grain trains ended at the Lakehead.  The entire BC coast was only accessible by boat.  Until such time as there are significantly large settlements, the north will have to rely upon ship and air.  Both need SAR standing by not located in Trenton 8 hours away

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Because there are no natural resources up there...at all?  I don't think any 'invading force' would want the land itself...but...

http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/the-north/science/geology-energy-minerals/10717

Canada’s Arctic is one of Earth’s last frontiers for natural resource development. As a result mining and oil and gas development will be a key economic development instrument. The region is rich in diamonds, gold, oil and gas, base metals and iron ore. However, much of Canada’s North has not been studied to a sufficient level to encourage and sustain resource investment and to inform land-use decisions such as the creation of parks and other protected areas. Recent and on-going activities, primarily as part of the Earth Sciences Sectors’ Geo-Mapping for Energy and Minerals Program, are improving our knowledge of Canada’s North through the acquisition and rapid release of new geoscience information for targeted areas with high potential for base metals (copper, nickel, iron, zinc and lead), precious metals (gold, silver, platinum), diamonds, and multiple commodities including rare metals.

And it isn't only Russia with an eye on the Arctic.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/chinese-ship-making-first-voyage-through-canadas-northwest-passage/article36142513/

Maybe not today, but sometime tomorrow "down the road" as natural resources dry up globally, someone guarantee me wars won't be fought for these extra resources.  Anyone?

 

[daftandbarmy]

Because there are no natural resources up there...at all?  I don't think any 'invading force' would want the land itself...but...

http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/the-north/science/geology-energy-minerals/10717

And it isn't only Russia with an eye on the Arctic.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/chinese-ship-making-first-voyage-through-canadas-northwest-passage/article36142513/

Maybe not today, but sometime tomorrow "down the road" as natural resources dry up globally, someone guarantee me wars won't be fought for these extra resources.  Anyone?

This book seems to think so:

Canada's Arctic Sovereignty: Resources, Climate and Conflict

Until now, Canada's claim to the frozen expanses of the Arctic has gone largely unchallenged. No longer. Suddenly our great white North is on everyone's radar, and five other countries are all interested in redefining our international boundaries. As known global oil and gas reserves dwindle, these nations are rushing to stake their claims on the Arctic's impressive, untapped mineral and energy reserves. Unprecedented global warming means that natural resources previously trapped by ice under the region's seabed are more accessible. Melting sea ice is also opening the Canadian Northwest Passage, a coveted trade route that has been almost impassable for most of recorded history. Journalist Jennifer Parks explores the issues related to Canada's Arctic in this timely, thought-provoking treatment.

https://www.amazon.ca/Canadas-Arctic-Sovereignty-Resources-Conflict/dp/1926736001

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Having been involved in infrastructure projects for years, having roads, airports, ports, communications and powerlines, makes a huge difference in the region they are built. Canada has a lot of resources, but generally to far away to be economically viable for most companies. Once the road/rail is in place, then projects suddenly become viable. It is the job of government to create these opportunities and set up the conditions for growth. We have no overarching Northern strategy, other than "permanent ignore". I applauded Harper's efforts to make it more of an issue and the needle has moved a bit.

Ports and Airport improvements are the first step, along with investments for renewable energy and improved communications. These produce a quicker bang for the buck. But they are still limited in what they can do. The next step is develop rail/road routes that follow the best geography and allow the greatest potential for connections with resource projects and remote communities. The road/rail payoff are measured in decades and that makes them politically uninteresting, unless your name is W.A.C. Bennett. I only wish he had manged to finish the rail line to Dease Lake. We lack visionary leaders and voters who would vote for them.     

 

[daftandbarmy]

Meanwhile, in Russia:


Jane's Defence Weekly
New airbases significantly expand Russia’s Arctic geographical presence
Bruce Jones

Russia’s Northern Fleet has announced in a New Year’s press release that during 2018 its pilots will “significantly expand the geography of its Arctic air presence” through the use of new polar airbases. Russia’s staple maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare aircraft are the Tu-142 ‘Bear’ and Il-38 ‘May’.

Official Russian defence sources provide more detail on Arctic airbase developments from west to east.

The ongoing reconstruction of the Northern Fleet’s main airbase of Severomorsk-1 on the Kola Peninsula includes a new runway, taxiways, lighting and communications’ systems, and a new command-and-control centre. It will be capable of handling a wide range of aircraft, including the Il-96 long-haul wide-body airliner. Almost co-located Severomorsk-3 airbase has already been modernised.

The new Nagurskoye airfield on Alexandra Land Island in Franz Josef Land, will have a 2,500 m runway and be able to station a fleet of MiG-31 ‘Foxhound’ interceptors, Su-34 ‘Fullback’ bomber-strike fighters, and Il-78 ‘Midas’ refuelling aircraft.

Reconstruction has been carried out at airbases at Rogachevo on the Novaya Zemlya island group, and at Naryan-Mar, in the Nenets province on the Barents Sea.

Upgrades and modernisation are continuing at Vorkuta, a city built to administer the gulag system, inland from the Kara Sea; Norilsk-Alykel, serving the closed Arctic city of Norilsk in central Siberia; Severnaya Zemlya Island, part of Krasnoyarsk Krai, on the Kara Sea; Tiksi, on the Laptev Sea; Anadyr, on the Bering Straits opposite Alaska; Cape Schmidt, on the Chukchi Sea, towards Alaska and the Bering Straits; and Wrangel Island, on the Chukchi Sea, straddled by the international dateline.

Temp airbase on Kotelny Island in the New Siberian Island group is expected to be in service by the end of 2018.
Aircrews serving in the polar regions receive considerable additional specialised training in order to deal with challenging navigational, communications, meteorological, and flight-planning requirements.

All off-lying island bases have detachments of Aerospace Forces’ (VKS) Radio-Technical Troops on 24-hour duty maintaining long-range communications links, radar, and early warning systems.

They are equipped with very recent Nebo-M, Podlet-M-TM, Kasta-2E2, and Gamma-S1 mobile air and missile defence radar systems and the Fundament signals processing system, which is integrated with the S-400 missile system.

These systems cover different ranges and altitudes and are claimed together to be “able to track 200 targets at altitudes of more than 35,000 ft [7,600 m] at a range of 200 km,” in all weather, including conventional and stealth targets.

ANALYSIS

Because of the drop in energy prices and the effects of economic sanctions following its annexation of Crimea and activities in Ukraine, Russia is not expanding its militarisation as much as in recent years. Much, however, has and continues to be achieved.
The overarching obstacle facing these developments has been the role of the Federal Agency for Special Construction, Spetsstroy, which was liquidated on 27 September 2017 after being cited for alleged “multi-billion-dollar embezzlement”. This has resulted in delays and confusion over the actual status of projects.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
The expansion of Russian bases comes while there is pressure within NATO, including the United States in Alaska, to reduce its commitments within the polar circle. At the same time there is a vast shrinkage in NATO ’hull numbers’ in the Atlantic, while Moscow’s grow exponentially. NATO furthermore no longer enjoys naval supremacy around or north of the Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) Gap.

Russia’s expansion of High North bases creates nodal networks of airfields and staging bases, enabling troops and equipment to be moved and deployed in parallel, east to west or vice versa simultaneously, en masse and with speed and surprise, along shorter high latitude routes. Russia it should be remembered is adopting the pre-positioning of weapons and stores co-located at major bases to await large numbers of reinforcing troops.

The bases create a further symbolic possibility, particularly using mid-air refuelling and stand-off missiles, of being able to strike targets in North America.

MiG-31 ‘Foxhound’ fighter-interceptors, Su-34 ‘Fullback’ bomber-strike fighter and Il-78 ‘Midas’ refuelling aircraft are to be stationed at Russia’s Nagurskoye base. From Nagurskoye to US Thule AFB, Greenland, and Canadian Forces’ Station (CFS) Alert on Ellesmere Island is 1,000 miles, from Wrangel Island to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, 700 miles.

Russian military doctrine has always favoured making use of challenging terrain and climatic conditions to other options, because it does not fire back.

http://janes.ihs.com/Janes/Display/FG_713879-JDW

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Article Link, April 2017

Russia's new Arctic Trefoil military base unveiled with virtual tour 

Visitors to the Russian defence ministry website can now take a "virtual tour" of a new military base in a remote region of the Arctic.

Such media openness contrasts markedly with Russia's traditional military secrecy. However, the tour does not show any new military hardware.

The Arctic Trefoil permanent base is in Franz Josef Land, a huge ice-covered, desolate archipelago.

The Russian military sees the resource-rich Arctic as a key strategic region.

President Vladimir Putin visited the new base, on Alexandra Land, last month.

It is built on stilts - to help withstand the extreme cold - and will house 150 personnel on 18-month tours of duty. Winter temperatures typically plunge to minus 40C.

Covering 14,000sq m (151,000sq ft), it is the second Putin-era Arctic base to be built for air defence units. The first base to be completed was Northern Clover on Kotelny Island, further east.

A military airstrip is also under construction in Franz Josef Land, called Nagurskoye.

Russia is building four other Arctic military bases - at Rogachevo, Cape Schmidt, Wrangel and Sredniy.

Experts say the melting of Arctic sea ice - generally attributed to climate change - is making the polar seas more accessible for shipping. That could make it easier to prospect for untapped energy and minerals in the region.

The 360-degree virtual tour shows the main living quarters at Arctic Trefoil, including a central five-storey atrium. The "trefoil" name refers to the main block's three wings.

The base is self-sufficient in electricity, and equipped with a clinic, library, chapel, gym and cinema.

A military expert quoted by RIA news agency, Col (Rtd) Viktor Litovkin, said Russia was pursuing several strategic goals in the Arctic:
Control of international shipping on the Northern Sea Route, including providing alerts about icebergs and severe weather
Protecting Russian oil and gas resources in the Arctic
Defending Russia against any intrusion by foreign warships and missile threats.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Franz+Josef+Land/@80.6896657,46.3452741,743115m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x453d135600f66d7f:0xe41ee8cc6c1f61dc!8m2!3d80.799898!4d55.2478176

 

[YZT580]

Can you imagine the retention issues if we were to attempt to deploy squadrons of F18s to even Yellowknife for extended periods of time?  Cold Lake would seem like paradise....

 

[daftandbarmy]

Can you imagine the retention issues if we were to attempt to deploy squadrons of F18s to even Yellowknife for extended periods of time?  Cold Lake would seem like paradise....

But it would be a great place for all those pilots

 

[Kirkhill]

Just a point about roads -

A number that keeps coming to my mind is 70%.  That is the land mass of Canada that a Manitoba study determined was not accessible by road.  That means something like 7,000,000 km2 of area.  That is something like 4x the area of the prairies (~5,900,000 people and 473,000 km of paved and gravel roads).  It is also something like 1000x the area of the Greater Toronto Area (also ~5,900,000 people but only 5200 km of roads).

The point is that to economically exploit an area requires a network of roads - not a single, spidery, vulnerable connector 1000 km long to a "Field of Dreams" (pace Kevin Costner).

Maintaining the Prairie road network is a financial challenge for the 5,900,000 locals. 

What would be the challenge of an equivalent network 4x the size (4x 473,000 km = 1,892,000 km) borne by the 113,000 inhabitants of Nunavut, the Yukon and the Northwest Terrritories?  Forgetting the challenge of rivers, lakes, 'skeg and pingos (monstrous great zits that erupt on the landscape - not muddy footed troops on ships).

 

[Colin Parkinson]

In BC

Over 620,000 kilometers of roads on the British Columbia landbase are considered resource roads.

 

[daftandbarmy]

We punched a railroad West across thousands of miles of some of the toughest land in the world to guarantee Confederation in the mid-1800s.

I assume we can figure out how to go North in the early 20 teens if we have the same will.....

 

[MarkOttawa]

In fact not until towards the end of the century:

...
On Nov. 7, 1885, the eastern and western portions of the Canadian Pacific Railway met at Craigellachie, B.C., where Donald A. Smith drove the last spike. The cost of construction almost broke the syndicate, but within three years of the first transcontinental train leaving Montreal and Toronto for Port Moody on June 28, 1886...
http://cpconnectingcanada.ca/our-history/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[YZT580]

We punched a railroad West across thousands of miles of some of the toughest land in the world to guarantee Confederation in the mid-1800s.

I assume we can figure out how to go North in the early 20 teens if we have the same will.....

We already did this once. Goes to Churchill but it is washed out and no one has the will or the cash to repair it and without a reason for the destination there is no purpose either.  If it costs too much to fix one that is already there, what is the economic sense of creating another one thousands of kilometres long.  There just aren't enough customers at the end of it.  Wouldn't it make more sense to develop an arctic shipping infra-structure centred on Churchill that provided shipping services throughout the entire Arctic?  Although ships are seasonal, they have the advantage that the water is already there and they are capable of hauling large quantities of cargo. Even for mineral development constructing a pier and short spur lines from source to coast makes more sense than trying to finance even a few hundred miles of road.  For those who say that seasonal shipping isn't profitable consider that grain shipments east of Thunder Bay used to terminate mid-December and didn't start up again until April.  Also the steel mills in Hamilton stockpile ore for 3 months or more to cover winter operations: so a short but intense shipping season from mine to Churchill could be conceivable.
Without actions such as this even fixing what we have is a waste of money

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Owning a big country is like owning a big chunk of property, either look after it, or someone else will.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Colin P: Only the US could conceivably really threaten our sovereignty--and they certainly would act to stop any serious incursion by a third country, in their own security self-interest (and follow Article 5 of NATO treaty).

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Kirkhill]

There was a significant difference between the CPR and the Churchill line and YZT alludes to it - the CPR line went from someplace to someplace, not from someplace to noplace.

Victoria and Vancouver were already up and running as ports trading into western North America and were growing on their own.  Likewise Halifax to Sault Ste Marie was settled and growing.  Also, both Halifax and Victoria were connected by the White Ensign.  So the CPR, and its associated telegraph, was essentially a shortcut for the RN, as well as the Merchant Bankers of London.

The railway didn't create Vancouver.  It didn't even create Edmonton (the HBC did that) or Calgary (Whiskey traders created Lethbridge and made Calgary necessary). The railway created Ottawa.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Colin P: Only the US could conceivably really threaten our sovereignty--and they certainly would act to stop any serious incursion by a third country, in their own security self-interest (and follow Article 5 of NATO treaty).

Mark
Ottawa

Depends how you define sovereignty, if China decides to drill in arctic waters we call our own, but even the US disagrees, then are they going to help us? China does not need to claim it as their own, just state "In our opinion it's belongs to everybody and by the way we have bought enough UN votes to support our postion" 

 

[Kirkhill]

There is precedent - The Doughnut Hole.

The Doughnut Hole is in the Bering Sea.  It is a space that is more than 200 NM from any American or Russian shore.  Thus it falls outside of the Economic Exclusion Zones of both the US and Russia.  Thus it is International Waters - or Commons.

The Bering Sea is home to a fish, the Walleye Pollock, which has been feeding Japan since the 1960s and the US since the 1980s.  In the 1980s the US asserted its economic rights over its EEZ and started managing the Pollock stock and turned it into a sustainable fishery.  The Russians never managed the same trick.

The Doughnut Hole (or Donut Hole if you prefer) became a major problem.  It became an unmanaged and unmanageable area into which Chinese and Polish Trawlers entered and sucked up the pollock - undermining both the Americans and the occasional Russian attempts to control the fishing of the pollock.  Ultimately it threatened the stock and the ability of the Japanese and Koreans to be fed.

The Doughnut Hole was unique because to access it the "pirates" had to transit nationally controlled waters and because they were proceeding to International waters there was nothing the intervening nations could do to restrict either the fishing, which was not illegal, or the free passage.

That is the type of problem that Canada faces in its Arctic (and Dixon Channel and the Bay of Fundy and Georges Bank).

Canada needs to be able to place DFO and RCMP officers in place to assert Canada's desire and intention to manage the area according to our laws.  The CAF needs to be available and capable of supporting those officers in the event Spanish Trawlers show up again or a Canadian version of the Icelandic Cod War breaks out.

The Cod Wars
Background to the Cod Wars


The cod wars were a series of disputes between Britain and Iceland running from the 1950s to the 1970s over the rights to fish in Icelandic waters. Although it was never a war in the conventional sense of the word (the massive and well-equipped Royal Navy would have easily defeated the tiny Icelandic Navy), the peak of the Cod Wars saw thirty seven Royal Navy warships mobilised to protect British trawlers fishing in the disputed territory. While the wars were eventually settled through diplomatic means there was conflict between British naval vessels and Icelandic ships out at sea. The Cod Wars showed how seriously nations took their fishing rights, and the lengths they would go to in order to access rich fishing grounds.

http://britishseafishing.co.uk/the-cod-wars/

 

[MarkOttawa]

Conclusion of very sensible piece at CGAI:

Arctic Sovereignty: Preoccupation vs. Homeland Governance and Defence
...
by CGAI Fellow Andrea Charron and James Fergusson
...
Referencing “Arctic” and “sovereignty” in the same sentence is generally a recipe for alarmist and precipitous action. It is usually translated into a demand for a more military presence, which, while a ready answer for the Canadian government, ignores the fact that sovereignty issues today are settled in courtrooms. There are no de jure or de facto threats to Canadian Arctic sovereignty. If Russia is a real threat, it is to Canada and its allies as a whole. Indeed, the Arctic is the one issue area in which Russian co-operation has been tremendously helpful. Certainly, as the balance between de facto and de jure sovereignty has changed over time, one cannot predict how it might change in the future. For now, however, Canadians should replace Arctic sovereignty with homeland defence and devote attention to issues which relate to how the federal government exercises its sovereign authority over the people who live in its Arctic territory and how it will work with allies now and in the future to defend Canada.
https://www.cgai.ca/arctic_sovereignty_preoccupation_vs_homeland_governance_and_defence

Relevant earlier post of mine:

Arctic Tensions Not Really About the Region but Relations With Russia
https://cgai3ds.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/mark-collins-arctic-tensions-not-really-about-the-region-but-relations-with-russia/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Blackadder1916]

Since the only reference to Exercise Musk Ox that I found on these means was a brief mention in this thread back about 10 or 11 pages, I thought this may be an appropriate thread in which to provide a link to a 1946 DND/NFB film about the exercise in which Canadian soldiers travel overland from Churchill to Edmonton the long way (up north and then across the territories).


https://vimeo.com/167910734


There is some background material available at the U of C. https://www.ucalgary.ca/arcticexpedition/map-home/army-goes-north-operation-muskox