NATO launched Operation Arctic Sentry (OAS) on February 11, an effort to bolster allied military presence and domain awareness across the wider Northern Flank of the alliance.
In the words of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), US Air Force Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, the operation “underscores the alliance’s commitment to safeguard its members and maintain stability in one of the world’s most strategically significant and environmentally challenging areas.”
There’s a perfectly good case to be made for an increased focus on the High North, but the unheralded decision was as much about politics as military needs. Arctic Sentry represents an attempt to ease tensions over Greenland — which President Trump says he’s determined to incorporate into the US — as it is about strengthening NATO’s Northern flank.
According to the Trump administration, control of the island is vital to US national security interests, and its ownership would benefit the alliance to ward off Russia and China’s growing presence and cooperation in the Arctic.
For now, at least, talk of US military action has diminished. After some very public exchanges and a private Trump meeting with NATO’s Secretary General, it was agreed that the issue will be settled with a “framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland”. However, its form has yet to be announced.
But we shouldn’t lose sight of what matters. The Arctic, and more generally, NATO’s Northern flank, remains a critical region in which allied forces must once again adopt a stronger pace of both Joint exercises and deployments.
So the launch of Arctic Sentry is a positive step towards a more cohesive and permanent presence in the region, which many have been demanding for a while, but which will also have to be carefully articulated to avoid wasting valuable (and scarce) resources.
Arctic Sentry is aligned with the updated Alliance Maritime Strategy, under which NATO will employ sea power to provide credible nuclear deterrence, sea control and power projection, freedom of navigation, maneuver and action, and protection of sea lanes and maritime critical infrastructure.
As argued in a previous article discussing NATO’s presence and deterrence in the High North, beyond the individual capabilities of the Nordic nations and the various exercises currently held throughout the year, the alliance needs a stronger collective approach based on a more permanent presence.
As per NATO’s communiqué, the operation will serve as an umbrella for all initiatives and exercises in the Arctic, which include Denmark’s Arctic Endurance in Greenland, a series of multi-domain exercises designed to enhance allied ability to operate in the region, and Norway’s upcoming exercise Cold Response. The UK stated in February that it will double the deployment of Royal Marines in Norway to 2,000 this year to address what it described as a rising Russian threat.
Arctic Sentry will be led by Joint Force Command Norfolk (JFC Norfolk), which is responsible for the Arctic region and the alliance’s Northern flank as a whole. Its current commander is a US four-star officer, but will pass to a UK admiral for the first time as part of reforms to Europeanize NATO.
The announcement of the operation generated a wide variety of reactions from Arctic scholars and analysts. Some consider that “if there’s a lot of manpower . . . especially if it’s in Greenland, then it will come up expensive”, while Sino-Russian cooperation in the region is still seen by many as “largely symbolic.”
While those observations are true, Arctic Sentry provides a great opportunity to unify all initiatives in the region. If efficiently managed and employed to coordinate existing initiatives, including deployments of MARCOM’s Standing Maritime Group 1 (SNMG 1) across the wider North Atlantic, the alliance stands to gain much more than just quieting the Trump administration.
Other national initiatives, such as the UK’s Atlantic Bastion (designed to use new technologies, including unmanned systems, to counter enemy submarines) showcase a renewed push to strengthen allied sea power in the region and will likely add to what OAS can do over the coming months and years.
More importantly, naval deployments and joint multidomain exercises will also contribute to the ability of NATO forces to deploy and operate in the harsh Arctic environment. Polar conditions make for one of the most challenging environments to operate in due to risks presented by unpredictable weather and climate factors, which also extends to warships, aircrafts and most military equipment.
As highlighted by Arctic expert Elizabeth Buchanan: “The alliance has enduring strategic interests in the High North across challenges related to climate change, critical infrastructure (in)security, data and sea cable security, fisheries, as well as the security of sea lines of communication.”
Consequently, the waters of the Arctic and the North Atlantic are now as strategically important to NATO as any other flank. Efforts to bolster presence and training in the region, then, must be welcomed as a positive addition to the alliance’s ability and willingness to address enemy threats.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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