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mahatmakanejeeves

(57,416 posts)
Wed Nov 21, 2018, 12:12 PM Nov 2018

As the ice melts, U.S. prepares for possible threats from Russia and China

This is a giant article.

David Fahrenthold Retweeted

The @washingtonpost today published a long story I wrote from the Aleutian Islands. It's festooned by gorgeous photos taken across the Arctic by @mediakadir and Yuri Kozyrev, who spent months traveling the region. Some details worth considering: 1/



National Security

THE NEW ARCTIC FRONTIER

As the ice melts, U.S. prepares for possible threats from Russia and China

Photos and videos by Kadir van Lohuizen and Yuri Kozyrev | NOOR
Story by Dan Lamothe
Nov. 21, 2018

UNALASKA, Alaska ­— Army helicopters began flying in and out of the scraggily wilderness near this fishing town in August, surprising even the mayor. ... The tan, twin-rotor Chinook aircraft thumped over treeless cliffs and the historic port of Dutch Harbor, parking at a mountainside airstrip too small to land jet airliners.

Soldiers came and went, sometimes staying at the main hotel in town, across the street from a bar called the Norwegian Rat Saloon. Unalaska's mayor, Frank Kelty, said he called the military to find out what was going on but learned little.

“We have these Army helicopters here, and we don’t know what they’re doing or where they’re going,” he said after driving by the airport on the remote Aleutian island and seeing a Chinook resting near the runway.

The mysterious operation was part of the U.S. military’s gradual growth in the Arctic as it grapples with the effects of melting polar ice and Russia’s and China’s increasing assertiveness in the region. The slowly evolving plan has included stationing more fighter jets in Alaska, expanding partnerships with Nordic militaries, increasing cold-weather training and designing a new class of icebreaker ship for the Coast Guard that could be armed.




Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen
....



The Coast Guard recently opened its forward operating base in Kotzebue, Alaska. The move comes as part of operation “Arctic shield,” which aims to support Coast Guard missions amid increased maritime activity in the region. (Kadir van Lohuizen/NOOR)
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Melting ice has made the region easier to navigate and opened it up to oil and gas exploration.
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About this story

The photo and videos in this presentation by Yuri Kozyrev and Kadir van Lohuizen of NOOR images were created with the support of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award. The Fondation Carmignac award funds the production of an investigative project selected by an international jury. More information can be found on the foundation's website.

Yuri Kozyrev traveled extensively across the Russian Arctic for this project. Kozyrev is internationally recognized for his photojournalism and a member of the social documentary photography agency NOOR. He began his career documenting the collapse of the Soviet Union for the Los Angeles Times. For the past 25 years, he has documented multiple conflicts for international publications including more than a decade covering Iraq for Time magazine. Kozyrev recently photographed the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine and the migrant crisis in Europe.

Kadir van Lohuizen traveled to Canada, Greenland, Norway and Alaska for this project. Van Lohuizen is an Amsterdam-based freelance photojournalist and a founding member of the social documentary photography agency NOOR. He began his career as a conflict photographer and is internationally recognized for his long-term projects on life along the world's major rivers, the perils of rising sea levels, the blood-diamond industry and the impact of migration in the Americas.

Dan Lamothe covers national security for The Washington Post, with an emphasis on the Pentagon and the U.S. military. He joined The Post in 2014, and has traveled extensively since then on assignment. Lamothe has embedded with U.S. troops in combat in Afghanistan multiple times, and also has reported from Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, the Arctic Circle, Norway, Spain, Belgium, Germany, France, Singapore, Australia, Mexico, Spain and the Republic of Georgia.

Photos and videos by Yuri Kozyrev and Kadir Van Lohuizen. Story by Dan Lamothe. Photo editing by Nick Kirkpatrick, Chloe Coleman and MaryAnne Golon. Video editing by Sarah Parnass. Text editing by Tiffany Harness. Additional text by Adam Mowder and Tiffany Harness. Map by Laris Karklis. Design and development by Jason Bernert and Brian Gross. Project managers: Nick Kirkpatrick and Julie Vitkovskaya.
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As the ice melts, U.S. prepares for possible threats from Russia and China (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Nov 2018 OP
this has been planned KT2000 Nov 2018 #1

KT2000

(20,577 posts)
1. this has been planned
Wed Nov 21, 2018, 02:22 PM
Nov 2018

for quite a while. This document is periodically updated.
The military has been preparing for climate change for defense purposes. Even our small town in NW Washington is part of a build up for this. Weapons testing in the National Forest and a new small Navy facility for ship crews.

https://www.navy.mil/docs/USN_arctic_roadmap.pdf

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