General Alexus Grynkewich is the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR):
Russia and China are expanding their presence in the Arctic for strategic — not scientific — reasons, according to a senior U.S. commander.
“It’s not for peaceful reasons,” said Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the supreme allied commander Europe, at a conference in Sweden Sunday.
“They’re not studying the seals and the polar bears,” he went on. “They’re out there doing bathymetric surveys and trying to figure out how they can counter NATO capabilities on and under the sea. So that’s something that could grow very quickly, and we need to be mindful of it and ready for it.”
Submarine navigation is a major issue. Consider the photo at the top of this piece; modern nuclear submarines can spend a considerable time under Arctic ice, where they are essentially undetectable and invulnerable, except to other submarines.
What Russia and China are doing in the Arctic, right now, is intelligence-gathering. And the United States and NATO are already at a disadvantage here; just take another look at that map of the Arctic.