Page 60 - Renorming of Airpower: The F-35 Enters the Combat Fleet

The Renorming of Airpower: The F-35 Arrives into the Combat Force

As the sea lanes in the Arctic-bordered regions become capable of longer periods of transit, the Northern sea
routes or the Northwest passage becomes a link at the top of the world which can connect Europe and the
Northern Pacific in ways that rival the traditional transit routes Southward through the world’s great canals.
But it is not simply about transit. It is about access to raw materials as well.
The Arctic holds significant oil, natural gas, rare earth minerals and other commodities vital to global economic
development. Exploitation is challenging and costly; but the long-term trajectory is very clear: the region will
be a central economic zone for the global economy.
The two trends – transport and raw material extraction – will become combined. For example, for states like
Japan and South Korea, which have no landward reach to raw materials as does China, these states will now
have an alternative path to acquire raw materials and have than transited to their factories. Rather than
simply relying on the Middle East, for example, South Korea and Japan can work with Russia and others to
gain access to Liquid Natural Gas and then have that product transported directly to their ports.
Russia is at the center of these developments.
The Russian European ports can look forward to be directly connected with the Pacific ports and with it the
growth of infrastructure, ports, facilities and shipping, along the way.

This transforms the Russian defense and security challenge to one of securing the trade and resource
development belt. It also will see a significant upsurge over the next thirty years of traffic, commercial and
military, through the area. It will be in Russia’s interest to build air and naval assets, which can provide for the
various needs for defense and security in the region.
Search and rescue, communications, maritime domain awareness, significant ISR capabilities, bomber
coverage, submarine and surface fleet coverage and related efforts will become prioritized.
A new Arctic activism by Russia is clearly underway. But the Arctic is clearly not a pure hard or soft power
domain. The area needs significant cooperation to work.
This does not imply that military means are not part of the equation in assisting in core ISR, C2, Search and
Rescue and other tasks.
Second Line of Defense

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