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Just days after four Russian military aircraft flew into the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, teams of U.S. special operations forces conducted a mission on St. Lawrence island—just 50 miles away from continental Russia—and on Shemya Island in Alaska’s remote Aleutian island chain. The objective of Operation Polar Dagger: to extend U.S capabilities to monitor the air and sea domain in the Arctic, and showcase how well special operator air, land, and sea teams work together in harsh, long-distance environments like the Bering Sea.
“We have an airfield on Shemya Island that allows us to push our special operations capability out there and really operate at the far reaches of our combined—I should say joint—capability between our conventional Air Force partners and Navy partners in special operations forces. Pushing them out there really allows us to test and demonstrate our operational reach in ways that are unique to anywhere in the homeland,” Special Operations Command North commander Col. Matthew Tucker told Defense One in an interview. St. Lawrence, meanwhile, “is really set in the middle of some key strategic terrain that sits astride the Bering Strait. It is in close proximity to one of our strategic competitors,” namely Russia.
This second iteration of Operation Polar Dagger was bigger than last year’s, bringing in the John P. Murtha LPD 26 transport ship and an AC-130 plane to build out faster intelligence, communications, and operations between the air, sea and ground.
One of the chief goals of the mission was to show improved “domain awareness,” Tucker said, “to understand, to ensure that what’s being seen in the air is effectively communicated to the forces on the ground. And then the opposite of that, that the forces on the ground are able to communicate their perception of domain awareness to the forces in the air … The second aspect would be our ability to deliver effects, kinetic or non-kinetic, from air to ground, in support of the ground forces, or ultimately in supporting the mission of the air components.”
While SOCNORTH was testing itself and its ability to operate at such distances and under such conditions, Tucker said, Polar Dagger was considered an operation, not an exercise.
“In an operation, you know, we are competitor focused, adversary focused, demonstrating real-world operational reach to both defend critical infrastructure, enhance our all domain awareness, and better understand some of our competitor activity in the Arctic,” he said.
The operation was planned in conjunction with NORTHCOM’s Operation Noble Defender, which “strengthens and progresses NORAD’s missions of aerospace warning, aerospace control, and maritime warning,” according to NORAD, as well as Noble Eagle and Polar Arrow, which “conduct aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning.”
Those competitors, Russia and China, have been increasing their own activity in the Arctic, prompting the Pentagon to establish an Arctic strategy and global resilience office in 2022, following the publication of a DOD Arctic Strategy in 2019.
“In different ways, Russia and China are challenging the rules-based order in the Arctic. Russia regulates maritime operations in the (Northern Sea Route), contrary to international law, and has reportedly threatened to use force against vessels that fail to abide by Russian regulations … China is attempting to gain a role in the Arctic in ways that may undermine international rules and norms, and there is a risk that its predatory economic behavior globally may be repeated in the Arctic,” that strategy reads.
Russia and China have also been coordinating more in the Arctic, Tucker said.
“Both of our strategic competitors are increasing their activity. Obviously one strategic competitor maintains a tremendous amount of shoreline up there and has some very direct economic interest in it for quite some time. Another strategic competitor recently declared themselves a near-Arctic nation, and they are working in conjunction with Russia to better understand the environment, the economic opportunities, and whatever other positions of advantage they might be able to seize by becoming more active in the Arctic. So I would say it’s really both competitors we see operating up there, routinely.”
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