Soviet Arctic explorer at station NP-8. Photo: Sputnik Searching for a Soviet research station The research station NP-8 was only used by Soviet Arctic explorers until the time the ice sheet began to split. At that time, the scientists could have been urgently evacuated and this abandoned research station continued to float in the ocean until it was destroyed. In the early 1960s, the CIA and the Office of Naval Research under the US Department of the Navy conducted a “hunt” for abandoned Soviet research stations. It is said that the Soviet Union installed American submarine sound detectors there. Initially, the target was station NP-9, detected by a reconnaissance aircraft in May 1961. However, the operation was delayed and the research station was located too far in the waters of the Arctic Ocean. Station NP-9. Photo: Sputnik In the spring of 1962, about 970km from the Canadian Air Force base at Resolute Bay, another abandoned and floating research station – station NP-8 – was accidentally discovered. This is an opportunity America cannot afford to miss. Plan “Skyhook” Considering the fact that an icebreaker can’t make it through the dense ice in the area, a helicopter won’t be able to reach NP-8’s location and the plane’s landing on icebergs Floating is also too dangerous. So the US decided to drop the agents there by parachute. But the question then is how to bring those people back [máy bay]. In the end, the US decided to use the evacuation system that the CIA used in hostile lands, also known as the “Skyhook” – developed in the late 1950s. The plan required a balloon. Helium-inflated small, a 150-meter lift and a low-flying aircraft. When the balloon rises to the required height, agents “tethered” to the balloon by lifting ropes will wait on the ground. The approaching aircraft will use a special scraper or “horn” to pull the rope while releasing the balloon. The lifting rope is then automatically wound into the winch, lifting the agent onto the plane. What happened on the iceberg? Major James Smith, an experienced paratrooper and fluent Russian, and his colleague Captain Leonard A. LeSchack, an expert in submarine surveillance systems, had three days to review everything at the research station. . A few boxes of essential equipment were dropped onto the iceberg with the agents. American B-17 bomber. Photo: Uli Elch (CC BY-SA 4.0) As the US predicted, the Soviet scientists left NP-8 station in a hurry without having time to bring all the equipment. Agents discovered more than 80 documents, collected debris from equipment left behind by the Soviet Union, took about 100 photos. By the time the plane returned to pick them up, the weather in the research station area had turned severely bad. Visibility is reduced and wind is very strong. “I was immediately in a situation that one would imagine was flying into space,” recalls Connie W. Seigrist, the pilot of the plane that arrived to pick up the agents. The “trophies” collected by the agents were easily loaded onto the plane using the Skyhook without any problems, but getting the agents on board was a difficult task. The wind caused LeSchack to be dragged nearly 100 meters until the agent tried to cling to a block of ice. Even after the plane picked up the lifting rope, LeSchack still spent up to 10 minutes “hanging” in the air in cold weather before boarding. After seeing what happened to his colleague, Smith released his balloon and held on to a Soviet tractor left beside the research station for as long as possible. In the end, Smith was lifted without any particular difficulty. “Enjoy your time. This is the first time I’ve been able to relax in about a week,” Smith joked to the pilots after being loaded onto the plane. As a result of Operation Coldfeet, the Americans discovered that the Soviet Union had made significant advances in the field of polar meteorology and polar oceanography. In addition, the US also obtained evidence that the Soviet Union used sonar equipment of US submarines in the Arctic. “Overall, the Soviet Union’s remarkable achievements in drifting stations show that they have a long experience in this field and that these research stations themselves are also very important to the Soviet government.” , the commander of the operation, Colonel John Cadwalader said.

Soviet polar explorer at the NP-8 ice station. Photo: Sputnik On May 28, 1962, two Americans parachuted from the B-17 “Flying Fortress,” landing at Severny Polyus-8 (also known as North Pole-8, or NP-8), a research station destroyed abandoned Soviet Union is drifting on an iceberg in the Arctic Ocean. This was the starting point of one of the CIA’s most unusual operations, which went down in history with the codename Operation Coldfeet. Hunting for Soviet ice stations An iceberg station was only useful to Soviet polar explorers until the moment the iceberg on which it rested began to disintegrate. At that time, the scientists will be urgently evacuated and the abandoned station will continue to drift across the ocean until it is completely destroyed. In the early 1960s, the CIA and the US Department of Navy’s Office of Naval Research conducted a real manhunt for abandoned Soviet ice stations. It is believed that in those places are installed sonar detectors of US submarines. Initially, the CIA’s target was station NP-9, discovered by a reconnaissance plane in May 1961. However, this mission stalled and the ice station was pushed too far into the ocean. A tow truck rescues a car mired in snow at a Soviet observation post on an iceberg in the Arctic. Photo: Getty Images In the spring of 1962, about 970 km from Candian Air Force Base in Resolute Bay, another abandoned iceberg station, NP-8, was unexpectedly discovered. It is an opportunity not to be missed. However, American icebreakers could not make their way through the dense ice in the area, helicopters could not reach the location, and it was too dangerous for an aircraft to land on a disintegrating “buoy”. So the CIA decided to drop the agents by parachute. But the question then is how to bring them back. Ultimately, officials decided to use a system that specialized in evacuating CIA agents from hostile territory known as the ‘Skyhook’ developed by Robert E. Fulton in the late 1950s. The system required a a bread-shaped, helium-filled balloon, a 150-meter extension cord and a low-altitude aircraft. Lockheed P-2 Neptune reconnaissance aircraft. Photo: RBTH When they needed to get out of the location, CIA agents would use helium cylinders to inflate their personal balloons, tie one end of the rope to it, and wrap the other end around them. The balloon will rise into the air, and the rescue plane will use special forks to reach for the rope, then release the balloon. The rope was then wound onto a winch and lifted the agents onto the plane. The rescue Major James Smith, an experienced paratrooper who is fluent in Russian, and his colleague, Lieutenant Leonard A. LeSchack, an expert in submarine surveillance systems, spent three days researching the NP-station- 8. They parachute down to the station with some necessary equipment boxes. As expected by the Americans, the Soviet scientists rushed to leave the NP-8 station without taking all the equipment with them. CIA agents unearthed more than 80 documents, collected fragments of equipment left behind by the Soviets, and took about a hundred pictures. Soviet Arctic Station 9. Photo: Sputnik By the time it was designated to evacuate, the weather at station NP-8 had deteriorated dramatically: Visibility had plummeted and icy winds were rushing in. Connie W. Seigrist, the pilot of the plane that rescued the agents, recalls: “I was immediately thrown into a situation that could have been imagined as if I was flying through space.” The aircraft collected the “trophies” using the ‘Skyhook’ system without much difficulty, but with humans it was even more difficult. The wind dragged LeSchack nearly 100 meters above the ice as he waited for evacuation by trying to anchor himself to a block of ice. Even after the plane had picked up, LeSchack spent another 10 minutes dangling in the icy air before being hoisted onto the plane. Major Smith (water drinker) on a B-17 on June 2, 1962; Lieutenant LeShack in the lower right corner. Photo: RBTH After observing what happened to his colleague, Smith released his balloon and grabbed hold of an abandoned Soviet tractor. In the end, he was lifted without any particular difficulty. As a result of Operation Coldfeet, the Americans discovered that the Soviet Union had made significant advances in the study of polar meteorology and polar oceanography. In addition, they obtained evidence that the Russians were using sonar equipment to detect American submarines in the Arctic. “Overall, the Soviet Union’s remarkable achievements in iceberg stations reflect their long experience in this field and the great importance their government places on it,” said Operation Commander, Captain John Cadwalader noted.

Veraverbeke, an Earth scientist at Vrije University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, said the satellite had captured images of “zombie fires” – which are remnants of a great fire from the previous year. When people thought they had handled the fire, they still “survived” silently underground for a whole year, waiting through the winter to flare up again. Zombie fires have broken out many times over the past decades and tend to happen more and more often. (Photo: National Geographic) Zombie fires have broken out many times over the past decades and tend to happen more and more often. Mr. Veraverbeke’s team found that their occurrence is strongly linked to climate change. The fact that the summer is getting hotter and longer with a series of large fires increases the rate of spawning zombie fires. The proliferation of these “zombies” shows that the Arctic is changing rapidly under the influence of climate, and is a warning bell for more serious disasters in the future. The fact that the summer is getting hotter and longer with a series of large fires increases the rate of spawning zombie fires. (Image: Getty Images) Hibernation in peat More than 16,187 square kilometers of the Arctic is covered with peat, which stores an estimated 415 billion tons of carbon, equal to the total amount of carbon found in all trees on Earth. As summer approaches, fires formed by lightning strikes or humans will burn directly above the peat above ground. “ These are ancient soils. Peat in Siberia is really very old ,” said Jessica McCarty, an Arctic scientist at the University of Miami, Ohio. Once peat is ignited, they can provide a medium for a fire to smolder underground long after the surface fire is extinguished. Fires sustained by peat can burn for days, weeks, months, even years. When the right time comes, they will once again flare up into great fires, like undead zombies. “ Peat has everything a fire needs to sustain itself. Fires can burn quite strong enough to last through the winter. They’ll essentially ‘hibernate’ until next spring, when the snow melts and gives a chance for fires to flare up in the ground.” , said researcher Rebecca Scholten from VU Amsterdam. Once peat is ignited, they can provide a medium for a long smoldering underground fire. (Photo: Sentinel Hub) What’s different about fire in the Arctic? From 2000 to 2010, fires consumed more than 50% of the Arctic every year. Over the next 10 years, the annual fire area continued to increase, especially in Alaska. Through the data, scientists found that the current frequency of fires in the Arctic is the highest since the first forest formed in this area about 3,000 years ago, maybe even the highest in 10,000 years. by. Wildfires in the Arctic produce more carbon than places like California or Europe, because the subsoil under high-latitude forests is often made up of old, carbon-rich peat. In 2020, the Arctic fires released nearly 250 megatons of carbon dioxide, about half the carbon emitted by humans in a year in Australia and about 2.5 times more than the record-breaking 2020 bushfires. in California. Climate Change Zombie fires have long been known to experts. In 1941, a man-made fire along a railroad in Alaska consumed almost everything within a 1,600 square kilometer radius around it. By May 1942, the fire “revived” and burned about 1,200 square kilometers. But scientists haven’t been able to determine whether these zombie fires are well documented, or if they occur more frequently as the Arctic climate warms rapidly. They think the second case is very likely. “ We’ll definitely see more of them (zombie fires) based on what I’ve seen in 30 years of observation and consultation (other experts) ,” said Randi Jandt, a fire ecologist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Jandt cited the great fire that burned more than 10,000 square kilometers in Alaska in 2019. Fire crews had to work around the clock to prevent the fire from spreading. But when they thought the disaster was over, the fire flared up again the following spring, just as the snow had melted. “ Just now you observe that the area is completely white of snow, but only two days later, the fire suddenly broke out in that very place. ,” said Mark Parrington, a researcher at the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service, describing the 2020 zombie fire in Alaska. Mr. Parrington said the frequency of fires in recent years in Alaska, Siberia and northern Canada have all increased sharply. “ In the past, firefighting in the Arctic didn’t get much attention because fires were rare, but that’s changing rapidly.” , said researcher Parrington. Wildfires in the Arctic produce more carbon than places like California or Europe. (Photo: Esquire Middle East) Another concern is how many zombie fires are buried underground, waiting to create a new disaster. Scientists say underground fires in the underground peat layer grow very slowly, only about 100 times faster than hair, so the possibility that fires from many years are still accumulating under the ground can be ruled out. land. Therefore, researchers only study fires in the past year. However, the increasing severity of fires shows that climate change is making the situation worse. The hot summer produces large fires that burn until the end of the season, and remnants of those are more likely to last through the winter. In the North West of the Arctic, zombie fires typically flare up every six of the hottest summers. In the summer of the cooler years, no zombie fire will make it through the next winter. “ There is a clear relationship between zombie fires and high temperatures and fire zones. That relationship pattern is only likely to intensify for the worse in the future, as climate change increases the likelihood of fires in the Arctic. “, said scientist Scholten.

Musk cows in Greenland. Photo: Caff The habitat of animals in the Arctic has an area of ​​​​about 7 million square kilometers with an extremely cold, dry climate, strong winds in each season. The species living in this environment have adapted to survive and thrive in the harsh environment. But the climate crisis has taken a toll on their survival, according to the report on Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity, published by the Arctic Flora Conservation Working Group (Caff. ) belongs to AC. “Climate change is a major driver of change in terrestrial ecosystems in the Arctic and is likely to increase the magnitude of the impact, multidimensional, and unpredictable,” the report said. above said. The temperature in the Arctic is increasing at twice the rate of the rest of the world. This situation leads to extreme weather events that cause southern species to move north and spread pathogens among species inhabiting the area. During the AC ministerial meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland on Thursday, a report assessing the status and development trends of Arctic species was released for the first time, following a five-year assessment. Caff’s 2017 on Marine Biodiversity. This report draws on decades of biodiversity monitoring in the area to provide an overview of the changes that have occurred here. In some parts of the Arctic, the number of important pollinating flies has decreased by 80% between 1996 and 2014. Photo: Caff At the Zackenberg research station in northeastern Greenland, scientists have found that important species such as pollinators have reduced their populations by 80% between 1996–2014. This data reflects the disparity between the timing of flowering of plants and pollinator activity caused by climate. The researchers also found that more than 50% of the 88 species of seabirds surveyed had declined in number, and up to 20% of the species were severely reduced. “On the Arctic tundra, seabirds are the most diverse group of birds,” said Paul Allen Smith, biologist and avian expert who contributed to the report. It is also estimated based on different climate scenarios that 80% of seabird species living in the high Arctic could also lose most of their habitat and breeding grounds in the next 50 years. Photo: Caff With reindeer herds migrating from Russia to Alaska, Ms. Christine Cuyler, an expert and consultant of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, said: “The number of reindeer individuals is always fluctuating, changing irregularly and there is a change in the number of reindeer individuals. abundance cycle”. “But in some cases, the amplitude of the fluctuation is tending to increase. Now, we are seeing fluctuations in the number of these species falling beyond historical records,” Ms. Cuyler pointed out. The majority of forest reindeer populations and species migrating to the Arctic tundra have declined in recent years. The Bathurst reindeer herd alone, which stretches from Canada’s Northwest Territories to Nunavut, has declined by 98% between 1986 and 2018. Ms. Cuyler said a number of factors that make this animal unable to survive the winter could be responsible for this decline, including the depletion of the main food source, snowfall, insects. pest infestation,… Rising temperatures in the Arctic also cause new pathogens to emerge that adversely affect the health of some species. In 2012, an outbreak of erysipelas, a bacterial infection that affects the skin, killed about 150 musk cows on Banks Island. “Bacteria are present all over the world, but when it comes to the Arctic, it’s completely unusual,” Cuyler said. “It usually won’t work in areas with low temperatures, cold climates. Things are changing as the Arctic is warming.” Furthermore, due to global warming climate change, mammal species are moving north. It is likely that the condition will become a source of parasites and new diseases, directly affecting species living in the area. The report also shows some facts about species that migrate to the Arctic, such as: red foxes compete with and even kill arctic foxes for lairs. In Alaska, brown bears are also competing for muskox habitat. “What’s happening is completely different from before and it’s devastating,” Cuyler said. As species move north, terrestrial ecosystems in the Arctic will increasingly shrink. “Extreme weather events – wildfires or devastating insects – will have systemic consequences for many years in the Arctic,” said Niels Martin Schmidt, a researcher at Aarhus University and also a researcher at Aarhus University. participants reported, emphasized. Sapphire According to The Guardian

The Arctic ice is melting fast. Arctic – the “unusual” ocean The trial was carried out with funding from the Office of Naval Research. Scientists have described the underwater “hydrogen bomb” as one of the mechanisms that arise due to global warming. This is the factor that is changing the nature of the Arctic Ocean faster than almost anywhere else on Earth. It is also evidence that the Arctic sea ice – a source of global climate stability, can disappear more during the year. “The rate at which ice melt in the Arctic is increasing is difficult to predict with precision. This is partly due to all the complex local feedbacks between the ice, the ocean and the atmosphere. This work shows a huge role for warm water from the ocean,” said Jennifer MacKinnon, a scientist, physical oceanographer at Scripps and lead author of the study. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications. Meanwhile, Dr Yueng-Djern Lenn, a physical oceanographer at Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences, said: “It has been a privilege for us to collaborate with our American colleagues. Thanks to that, we were able to make biochemical measurements in this field experiment.” According to this expert, the nutrients and isotope data they collect are extremely useful for tracing the origin of the melting ice. It also allows scientists to explore the impact of fluid dynamics on deep nutrient delivery for phytoplankton from shelf seas into the Beaufort Sea basin. The Arctic is an unusual ocean in that it is stratified into layers according to salinity rather than temperature. Most of the world’s oceans have warmer and lighter water near the surface. Meanwhile, the water will be cold, denser underneath. However, in the Arctic there is a cold and clear surface layer, influenced by currents and rapidly melting ice. Warm, relatively salty water enters from the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait and then into Barrow Canyon off the northern coast of Alaska. They act as a nozzle when water flows through a narrow passage. Because the water is saltier, it is thick enough to “submerge” or submerge below the arctic surface. This movement creates very warm standing bodies of water hidden beneath the surface of the water. The number of these warm subsurface pools of water has increased over the past decade, the scientists found. These pools of standing water known as “fusion bombs” are only stable enough to last for months or years. They lie beneath the main ice near the North Pole. These standing waters then destabilize the ice, as their heat gradually and steadily diffuses upward to melt the ice. Researchers deploy Fast CTD.u A detailed look at the process The process of warm water sinking has not yet been observed and understood. Without a clear understanding of this process, climate scientists cannot include that important impact in predictive models. The study suggests that warm water flows from the Pacific Ocean have increased over the past decade. This is seen as additional evidence that Arctic sea ice, a source of global climate stability, can disappear for a large part of the year. During a 2018 expedition funded by the US Office of Naval Research, scientists spotted one of these dramatic events for the first time. The team used a combination of new oceanographic instruments developed by the Multilayer Ocean Dynamics group at Scripps. The satellite observations were analyzed by researchers at the University of Miami. The data profile is prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Meanwhile, biological samples were collected by British and German scientists working on a project called “Changing the Arctic Ocean”. In addition, many scientists at several other institutions were responsible for detailed data analysis. “The team’s success highlights new perspectives we can see about the natural world when we see it in new ways,” said Scripps oceanographer Matthew Alford. A detailed look at the complex processes that regulate heat transport in the Arctic would not be possible without multiple sets of equipment, he said. These include remote sensing, as well as an automatic profiling machine developed at Scripps. Tools from the Scripps Multiscale Ocean Dynamics team include a customized “Fast CTD” sensor. As a result, quick configurations are created from the ship. In addition, an automatic “Wirewalker” uses energy from ocean waves to drive configuration measurements. These tools allow scientists to obtain high-resolution images of the ocean’s complex processes. From there, get a better understanding of how they work in detail. This work also highlights the importance of collaboration among many institutions, between several US funding agencies, and international partners. Collaborative work with scientists in the UK and Germany shows that warm water below the ocean’s surface also carries unique biochemical properties into the Arctic. This combination of organisms and chemicals is thought to have important implications for the changing arctic ecosystems.

Blue is the Arctic region of Russia, while blue is the area equivalent to the North Pole. Photo: Hellerick (CC BY-SA 3.0). The concept of the North Pole appeared in the Soviet Union in the 1930s to define remote areas with difficult living conditions. Most of these areas are located in permanently frozen areas. Here the land is not fertile and the winter is harsh, especially the difficult terrain, with no means of communication with other localities. These include Zapolyarie and the Far East. Administratively, however, the North Pole was added to more territories, not only distributed in the North of Russia. Specifically, this region includes part of the Ural and Southern Sibiri ranges, which are some areas of Tuva and Altai. In addition, there are similar regions to the North Pole (in blue on the map). Thus, the area of ​​the North Pole, including its equivalent, accounts for about 70% of the territory of Russia! 2. The North Pole is not inhabited by many people Remote village Tiksi in the Republic of Yakutia (Russian). Photo: Sergei Fomin / Global Look Press. Despite such a large area, but in the North Pole only less than 12 million Russians live, which is only 7% of the country’s population. Interestingly, in the North Pole, there are many ethnic minorities. They are the Pomor, Yakut, Tuva and many other peoples. They maintain a traditional way of life for hundreds of years. Cities in the Arctic are now becoming sparsely sparsely populated: In the Soviet era, people came here for money, because salaries for experts were 5-6 times higher than those in the central region of Russia. Many cities and villages were built next to mineral deposits that fell into decline after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. People are moving to warmer weather areas and selling their homes. Currently, in the city of Vorkuta, a 2-room apartment with repair costs about 200,000 rubles (nearly 2700 USD), equivalent to the price of a square meter of housing in the Moscow suburbs. In the villages on the outskirts of the city of Vorkuta, the cheapest price is from 30,000 rubles (400 USD). However, the population of Salekhard city in the Yamal region increases every year, as many locals do not want to leave. 3. The State guarantees the supply of essential goods Staff of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Conditions transport food to remote areas of the Yakutia Republic. Photo: Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations / Sputnik. Identification of the Arctic region is necessary to address the supply of essential goods issues. Every year before winter, Russian authorities organize the transport of goods to these areas such as fuel, medicine, food and other goods, usually by air or water. Of course, shops are still available in cities and rural areas in these areas, but private provision is very expensive. 4. Expensive cost of living in the North Pole Inside a store in the Republic of Yakutia. Photo: Barcroft Media / Getty Images. Farming in the Russian Arctic is very difficult due to the soil characteristics and infrequent weather conditions that allow the transportation of goods from other places. Only one thing here is the cheapest – an apartment. Here cheese costs 2 times more expensive than in central Russia, eggs 3 times more expensive, vegetables 4-5 times more. In fact, in the Arctic regions there are a few things that can be sold at relatively low prices are hunting animals and fish, which are quite rare in other parts of Russia. 5. Bright-colored housing to combat depression Graffiti in the city of Salekhard. Photo: Maria Plotnikova / Sputnik. In many cities in the North Pole, there is a tradition of brightly painted apartment buildings. Due to the lack of sunlight and trees, orange, yellow, and pink buildings add to the excitement. Vacation time longer, retire earlier Deer Farmers in Yamal. Photo: Maksim Blinov / Sputnik. In Soviet times, incentives for people to work in the North Pole were introduced in 1932 and revised several times. Today, people who work there get an additional 24 days off (by the standard 28 days a year), while working in the Arctic equivalent is an extra 16 days. If a person has worked in the Arctic for more than 15 years, then he or she is entitled to retire five years earlier than the average Russian (55 years old for women, 60 years old for men). In areas similar to the Arctic, it takes 20 years to retire. 7. The people of the North Pole adapt quickly to extreme conditions Photo: Ayar Varlamov / Sputnik. People who spend their whole life in the southern regions of Russia find it very difficult to get used to winter with cold winds and lack of sunlight. As for the people of the North Pole, such conditions will not cause them any special problems. A few years ago, scientists from the Republic of Yakutia explained that the body of people of northern Russian origin quickly adapted to extreme nights and extreme climates. QUOC KH Asian NH ( according to the RBTH . com )

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According to the announcement, the test program for the Belgorod submarine and the Poseidon torpedo will be completed in September 2021. The ship is now fully equipped, and factory-grade testing has also been performed.

“The nuclear reactor has been started aboard the Belgorod. The mooring tests are underway. Then there will be factory and state tests. By September, the ship must be completed.” entire test cycle, “the Russian Navy said in a statement.

Super nuclear submarine Belgorod.

“Upon completion of testing and entry into service, the first Belgorod will be us on the Northern Fleet. Then the Pacific Ocean will be the next area for the Belgorod and the Poseidon nuclear torpedo to appear.” , the source added.

Under this plan, the Russian Navy will give priority to equipping a total of 32 nuclear torpedoes for the Northern Fleet and the Pacific Fleet. All of these weapons will be fired from the Khabarovsk-class Belgorod nuclear submarines.

The Belgorod submarines are capable of detecting sea and air targets at a distance of hundreds of kilometers, making them more likely than the Yasen and Borei-class ships.

Talking about the reasons for prioritizing Belgorod and Poseidon for the two regions above, especially the Arctic, the source said, stemming from the increased US operations in the Arctic, especially the move to bring the USS. Harry S. Truman at the end of 2018, dispatched planes to hunt underground and reinforce military bases in this area.

The US has decided to spend $ 1.3 billion to reopen Adak airport and deploy the P-8A. The small runway located on Adak Island in the Aleutian Islands chain is the westernmost airport that can accommodate passenger aircraft in the United States. This small airport currently welcomes 2 flights a week of Air Alaska.

Fully known as the Adak Naval Aviation Facility, this small airport has been commercially operated since the withdrawal of the US Navy in 1997. But due to the increasing activity of Russia and China in the Arctic, the US decided to increase the ability to patrol the North Pole.

“The airport has the fuel facilities that Air Alaska currently uses to fuel its aircraft. The airport also has defrosting facilities that we can use to wash P-8A aircraft with fresh water”, a representative of the US Navy said.

“Russian friends are starting five runways and 10,000 Spetsnaz soldiers (in the Arctic) for search and rescue operations. China has also increased its presence there,” he added. are there “.

In addition to airport renovation and P-8A, the US Department of Defense has also publicly sent the F-35 stealth fighter to Alaska. However, the US military admitted, to compete with Russia in the Arctic, such investment is not enough. To do that, the US needs to have a strong enough icebreaker fleet, but that is not possible for the US at the moment.

As the US currently has only two outdated icebreakers, the Pentagon still has to rely on them to carry out its missions. The US has ordered a new series of icebreakers, but this will take time and they will wait years to have these modern icebreakers.

Meanwhile, Russia has a powerful fleet of icebreakers. First of all, it must be remembered that Russia has a good tradition of arming icebreakers on its own. During the 30s of the last century, during the development of Project 51 Russia created icebreakers and equipped them with some 130 mm and 76 mm caliber cannons, as well as heavy machine guns. All of these warships participated in the military operations of the Great Patriotic War and survived.

These experiences were later used to design nuclear icebreakers. These new types of icebreakers can be equipped with a four-barrel 45 mm automatic gun, ammunition cellar and other equipment. All weapons and ammunition for Soviet nuclear-powered ships were carefully stored in ports.

The Arctic project’s icebreakers can carry two AK-726 twin-barreled 76 mm cannons and four AK-630 six-barrel 30 mm assault rifles. Along with that, the Russian Navy has also started the process of testing with the new generation nuclear-powered icebreaker Ivan Papanin equipped with cruise missiles.

Therefore, it can be said that the Russian icebreaker fleet is the most powerful in the world. So, competing with Russia in the Arctic is almost impossible for the US right now, especially when Russia retrofits Belgorod submarines and Poseidon nuclear torpedoes.