Russian navy returns to Arctic. Permanently

[Mr Quatro]

This is really interesting news about Russia claiming the Artic region belongs to Russia, even going so far as to plant a flag with a research submarine at the bottom of the artic sea. China and Brazil have claims to the region also.

Where does the USA/USN stand on this issue?

We pride ourselves in playing submarine simulation games ... what is one more step in understanding the importance of the artic region among our many subsim commanders?

America needs a nuclear icebreaker for a starter ... how long would that take?

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2013/...c.-Permanently

The new determination to defend Russia's Arctic stake was symbolized by an impressive naval operation, widely covered in the Russian media, that saw a task force of ten warships and nuclear-powered icebreakers complete a 2,000-mile patrol across the formerly ice-bound coastline. The flotilla was led by the flagship of Russia's northern fleet, the guided-missile cruiser Peter the Great.

The ships arrived at the Novosibirsk (or New Siberian) Islands, near the Lena River delta, last Thursday, Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Arkady Bakhin said. He said the flotilla’s mission was part of a larger mission for the development and improvement of the Northern Sea Route and the Arctic zone around it.

"We have arrived there or, to be more exact, have returned there to stay because this was originally Russian land," Russian media quoted General Bakhin as saying.

In addition to regular naval patrols, Russia is rebuilding a Soviet airbase on Kotelny Island off the northern coast of eastern Siberia, which will serve as a bridgehead for restoring Russia's presence along the northeastern sea route that President Vladimir Putin has said may become as "important as the Suez Canal" in the coming decades.

Russia has been making substantial investments in its tattered and often rusting military for over a decade now. But the new emphasis on the Arctic is driven largely by global warming. Despite a recent episode of cooling, there has been a massive retreat of the ice sheets which formerly made the region practically impassible to shipping and forbidding to most kinds of economic activity.

[Aktungbby]

Not over-worry much on this one: Generally the first explorers hold first claim and as the USS Nautilus was first, our hat is in the ring, Moreover Roald Amundsen (1st at South Pole)was also the first to actually traverse the Northwest Passage 1903-1906 when it was 'untraversable'; ie Norway also has prior claim. His small boat, The Gjoa, was at San Francisco and was poorly maintained, but has been reclaimed by Norway and is at the Fram Museum at Oslo.