Kris Osborn
Security, Arctic Ocean
Key point: With climate change thawing the Arctic and opening new waterways and resources, both Russia and America are rushing to secure their dominance in the area.
Navy fast-attack submarines have been firing torpedoes beneath the Arctic ice as part of large scale effort to speed up preparations for war in the region in response to growing tensions with Russia and the increasing pace of melting ice.
During a recent US-UK ICEX exercise in the Arctic, the Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut and the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Hartford each fired several training torpedos under the ice, a Navy statement said.
"The primary objective of this year's ICEX is to test new under-ice weapons systems and validate tactics for weapon employment," Ryan Dropek, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport, Rhode Island Weapons Test Director, said in a written Navy statement. "Once the divers recover these torpedoes, we can extract important data about how they perform and react in these conditions."
While training torpedoes have no warheads and carry small amounts of fuel, they are useful in assessing the weapon’s performance in Arctic conditions. Overall, the ICEX exercises is designed to test combat and weapons systems, sonar systems, communications and navigation systems in a challenging operational environment.
Recommended: The 5 Biggest Nuclear Bomb Tests (From All 6 Nuclear Powers).
Recommended: How Israel Takes U.S. Weapons and Makes Them Better.
Recommended: North Korea’s Most Lethal Weapon Isn’t Nukes.
“The unique acoustic undersea environment is further compounded by the presence of a contoured, reflective ice canopy when submerged,” a Navy statement said.
Read full article