Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announces the Pentagon's new Arctic Strategy during a press briefing at the Pentagon on Monday, July 22, 2024 in Washington. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department must invest more to upgrade sensors, communications and space-based technologies in the Arctic to keep pace with China and Russia who are increasingly operating there, including in joint military exercises, a new Pentagon strategy says.
Defense Department leaders have, for more than the past decade, warned that the U.S. needs to step up its activities in the Arctic to better compete with China and Russia as climate change makes the frigid region more accessible. The cold and increasingly unpredictable weather also restricts military training and affects equipment. And the region, which has limited satellite coverage, requires a far more expansive array of sensors for communications and military awareness.
Hicks couldn’t quantify the increased activity by Russia and China in the region, but she called the growing cooperation between the two troubling. In 2022 and 2023, they conducted joint military exercises off the coast of Alaska. Russia, which has the largest amount of Arctic territory and has the most developed military presence there, including important strategic nuclear capabilities, such as its submarine-launched ballistic missile force.
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