THINGS ARE HEATING UP, and the Arctic is turning, well, slushy — and Vladimir Putin is getting all excited about creating more vodka outlets. Actually, they're going to be bases for "combined arms": army navy airforce. According to an article in WIRED by Robert Beckhusen, "Russia and Canada Gear Up for Arctic Non-War",
On Monday, Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev said Russia is planning to build a string of new naval bases in the Arctic. The bases are intended to be “key double-purpose sites” for warships “in remote areas of the Arctic Seas.”
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| — Russkies — |
Still, Russia wants to catch up on the Arctic front. In late June, Russian President Vladimir Putin took up the Arctic boosterism while overseeing the construction of another Borei-class nuclear submarine, of which Russia plans to have eight by 2020. ”Obviously, the Navy is an instrument to protect national economic interests, including in such regions as Arctic where some of the world’s richest biological resources, mineral resources are concentrated,” Putin said.
Well, Stevie's paying some kind of attention, as the article proclaims
| — Stevie Drone — |
Canada is also getting in on the binge. On Monday, Canada’s military was revealed to be planning a billion-dollar drone buy. The drones — intended to be armed — are reportedly focused (but not exclusively) on protecting Canada’s claims to the Arctic. The drones were last peddled by Canada’s Department of National Defence during the Libya war. With that war over, the looming Arctic war has moved in to fill the gap.
What those drones will be doing out there is anyone’s guess. Canada is also building new ships, and we shouldn’t forget about our neighbor’s plans to build stealth snowmobiles in case of an invasion of the tundra.
What those drones will be doing out there is anyone’s guess. Canada is also building new ships, and we shouldn’t forget about our neighbor’s plans to build stealth snowmobiles in case of an invasion of the tundra.
Check out the article and the links within it. Trust Stevie to pick a drone that was never designed for Arctic conditions. And stealth snowmobiles, go figure.
Good grief!!! Drones that can't withstand the Arctic cold? Short range F-35 jets with, a low fuel capacity and one engine, in the vast expanse of Canada. Submarines that aren't even seaworthy.
ReplyDeleteThis is Russia way of intimidating and flexing their muscles. Russia has been amassing war ships, icebreakers and fighter jets in their high Arctic. Both Russia and Communist China, are showing aggression in parts of the globe.
Trust Harper to permit Communist China, to buy up the tar sands. Russia and Communist China are allies, including Iran. They are blocking country's, wanting to stop the slaughter, of innocent civilians in Syria.
Harper is desperately blocking the, robo-call election fraud cheat investigation. He has installed one of his own boys, into Elections Canada. We all know what that means.
Beware of Harper's, two new Conservative judges. Harper also want the investigation of the election riding in disputes stopped. He knows he would never win an election fairly. Harper is obviously, cheating to win again. No doubt one of Harper's new judges, will favor Harper, if they know what is good for them, that is.
Oddly enough, Chinese officials are already talking about the need for a Chinese military presence in the Arctic. They're spouting off stuff such as whoever controls the Northwest Passage will control world trade.
ReplyDelete"Chinese researchers are publicly encouraging the government to actively prepare for the commercial and strategic oppor-tunities that a melting Arctic presents. Li Zhenfu of Dalian Maritime Uni-versity has, together with a team of specialists, assessed China’s advantages and disadvantages when the Arctic sea routes open up. ‘Whoever has control over the Arctic route will control the new passage of world economics and international strategies’, writes Li, referring both to the shortened shipping routes between East Asia and Europe or North America and to the abundant oil, gas, mineral and fishery resources presumed to be in the Arctic.
"...Li points out that the Arctic also ‘has significant military value, a fact recognized by other countries’. In a rare open-source article about the Arctic by an officer of the People’s Liberation Army, Senior Colonel Han Xudong warns that the possibility of use of force cannot be ruled out in the Arctic due to complex sovereignty disputes."
And a perception of China's interest in Siberian resources has Medvedev in knots and now shifting submarines to the east.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.ca/2012/08/russia-reacts-to-perceived-chinese.html
I'm very saddened to see that our Arctic, an area I cherish and once called home, is turning into yet another battlefront. While I applauded Harper's Arctic visits early on in his tenure as a sign that the place was at least on their radar, I truly wish his government would invest more in human capital there rather continuing to militarize the place. The costs for a single fighter jet could would surely build a lot of decent housing there.
ReplyDeleteGloria, dunno what the point is of saying "communist" China. Whatever threat they pose has little to do with whether they're communist or not. If anything, the dangers from China are much more about "capitalist" China. Anyhow, China isn't really communist any more; they're a capitalist economy run by an oligarchy at the top of a big organization which for odd historical reasons is referred to as the "Communist Party", much the way France's Liberals are called the "Socialist Party" even though by no stretch of the imagination are they socialist.
ReplyDeleteAnd Harper, full of sins though he is, is if anything somewhat less enthusiastic about China than he would be about most foreigners with money. Harper's business model is selling out to anyone who'll buy, but he has more reservations about selling out to China than to the US, truly rootless multinationals, Europe or probably even say India. The problem isn't that he's soft on China, the problem is that he's generally hostile to Canadian ownership of Canadian resources or enterprises. To him, success = foreign investment, which is to say no longer owning our own stuff.
OMG!!!
ReplyDeleteCommunist China has hacked into other country's secret files. Seems it was a mistake, for country's to purchase electronic components from China. U.S. missiles and other weapons, had infected components in them, bought from Communist China. They have also taken a further step, in their aggression to the Philippine Islands.
Russia and China just had a cozy little visit. The two country's are allies. The idea of China trying to horn in on Siberia, is laughable.
Premier Redford has launched a wall of shame. Seems company's at the tar sands are not paying their workers. Their names will be listed on the wall of shame. China is the worst offender. Contractors have a hell of a time, getting China to pay them. There is also a court case. Seems two Chinese workers are dead. We all know China's view on Human Rights, there are none. No matter how you slice it, China is a Communist country.
Harper thinking of the trillions he will make, off of China. Well, good luck with that one. The Chinese honor nothing. Other country's are pissed right off with Harper, and his very close relationship with Communist China.
As a rule. Canadians don't appreciate, Communism, Fascism, nor Dictatorships. However, I guess some Canadians do.
Well then, Gloria, do you think Medvedev warning was just another way to thank China for being such a great pal? Have you ever really looked into their relationship?
ReplyDeleteLook at it this way. In China environmental degradation is running headlong into the wall of overpopulation.
- China has a major desertification problem from once arable farmland being worked to exhaustion
- Of China's remaining, productive farmland, 40% is now contaminated with arsenic and other heavy metals from industrial airborne emissions. This is causing the ruin of 12-billion kilograms of Chinese foodstuffs every year
- Many of China's main rivers are now so heavily polluted as to be unfit for agriculture or human consumption
- A report this week noted that China is one of several key countries nearing the point of exhaustion of its groundwater resources
- A Chinese study a few months ago found that, by 2030, China will need every single drop of freshwater that reaches the country. Every drop, yet much of that is unusable because of industrial contamination
- Because of the water exhaustion problem, Chinese officials have announced it's time for the country to turn to world markets for food staples
- It has been estimated that China is no longer able to sustain its 1.3-billion population and that the country is so environmentally degraded that it can support a maximum population of 700 to 800-million. What does a country do with a half billion surplus people?
- The Chinese military has recently been standing up to the political classes and is demanding a voice in policy and decision making.
- China shares a 4,300 km. border with Russia and the adjacent territories are lightly populated
- Civil unrest is becoming much more common and unruly in China today and food insecurity will only make it far less stable
- China is being whipsawed by climate change impacts, both drought and floods
So you have this confluence of immensely powerful and destabilizing factors landing on Beijing's doorstep and the central government has no solutions. And you think China is going to remain cozy with Russia? Really?
There's a reason, Gloria, why America has developed its Air Sea Battle strategy and a reason for the Pentagon's "pivot" to Asia. There's a reason, Gloria, why Russia is moving to reinforce its military in the east. And there is no end of reasons why China is looking for some way out.
I plan to become an arctic pirate, with a secret lair inside a fake iceberg.
ReplyDeleteHi, I'm a newbie in drone things. Actually I'm still making my quad-copter that controlled by microcontroller 8051 family. But I can't make an interface program that connect my microcontroller and accelerometer ADXL345. I use i2c connection. I prefer Assembly Language than C language) I have no idea what program that could interface to read serial data output from ADXL345, how to generate the same baud-rate between ADXL345 and microcontroller, and view the output data in hyperterminal. Thank's…this site
ReplyDelete