by Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Russia will now be arming its icebreakers with guns and artillery as part of an ongoing effort to exert more influence, station more forces and potentially claim territory in the Arctic.
Russia already operates more icebreakers than any other country and of course travels along the Northern Sea Route border region ensuring unparalleled access to the Arctic. In recent years the Russian military has been moving more weapons, increasing patrols and even setting up bases in the region.
Russia’s state-backed TASS newspaper quotes the CEO of Krylov State Research Center saying the thickness of the ice will determine which kinds of weapons arm certain icebreakers.
“There will be ice-breakers and ice-breaking ships, in other words, ships capable of moving at a sufficient speed through ice floes of certain thickness. In fact, they will be armed icebreakers,” the CEO said, as quoted in TASS. “Where the ice is thin, there will be more weapons and the other way round.”
The TASS paper says the lead ship for the Arctic – an icebreaker of project 23550 The Ivan Papanin, began to be built at the Admiralty Shipyards on April 19, 2017 and launched on October 25, 2019.
“It will be armed with one 76 mm or 100 mm artillery piece,” the article states.
Changing US Navy Arctic Road Map
Adding artillery and guns to icebreakers is not particularly surprising, yet it does appear as the latest variable in a series of escalatory moves taken by Russia in recent years as it further militarizes its presence and ambitions in the region.
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Competition for territory, resources, presence and influence in the Arctic has been long standing in many respects, yet it has greatly intensified in recent years. This is in part due to the fast-changing operating environment in the Arctic. The pace of melting ice, a potential result of climate change, has massively accelerated the pace at which new waterways are opening up and geography is changing. This equates to new opportunities for rival countries to gain strategic advantage, maneuver into more advantageous positions and move more supplies, weapons and forces to the area.
The pace of melting ice, for example, lead the US Navy to make a number of key adjustments in recent years to its Arctic Road Map to adjust the anticipated timeframe of when the Navy will need to massively increase its Arctic operations. This includes an increase in Arctic surface and undersea patrols as well as Office-of-Naval Research initiatives to explore technologies such as ship-hull warming, de-icing technologies and methods of optimizing weapons performance in icy, Arctic conditions. The US Navy Arctic plan may also include greater collaboration with the Coast Guard to build more icebreakers.
Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
