Confrontation with NATO escalates as Russian submarines surge into the Atlantic

Source
China Military Online
Editor
Huang Panyue
Time
2019-11-13 17:37:59

By Fang Xiaozhi

Submarine is the backbone of the Russian Navy. Located in a high and cold region where the conditions are severe for the operation of surface vessels, Russia always considered submarine as a priority in its naval development, which could stay deep down in water and be insusceptible to climate. Most of its marine combat systems were built around nuclear submarines and became a “Sword of Damocles” hanging over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Recently Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) claimed that Russia had sent 10 submarines, including 8 nuclear ones, to the North Atlantic Ocean, which were exercising for breaking through the Faroe-Iceland anti-submarine defense line and making secret deployments in the Atlantic.

The conflict between NATO and Russia has been chronic. Ever since the end of the Cold War, NATO has kept expanding to East Europe and reached the Russian border now. After the Ukraine crisis, the relation between Russia and the west has gone worse, and NATO not only stepped up military construction and deployments, but also conducted regular, highly intensive military exercises on Russia’s doorstep.

NATO is reinforcing military preparations against Russia by implementing the comprehensive containment strategy and making large-scale military deployments, leaving Moscow seriously disgruntled.

At the moment, Russia is neither strong enough to stand up against the US-led NATO nor able to cope with the military alliance’s eastward expansion outside of Russian territory. The only thing it can do is increasing troops and deploying all kinds of advanced weapons, including missiles that can carry nuclear weapons, in the European part of its land.

Meanwhile, making a breakthrough on the sea and sending a massive nuclear submarine force to patrol the Atlantic as Soviet Union did back in the years is also an effective way to cope with the threats from NATO. Moscow’s recent move of sending up to eight nuclear submarines was the most massive operation of its submarine force in the past few decades since the Cold War ended and Soviet Union disintegrated.

For one thing, it wanted to flex muscles to NATO by showcasing its recovered strength, and let it know that although Soviet Union was gone and the Russian navy was declining, its nuclear submarine force remained strong and was totally capable of penetrating enemy defense. For another, it was a response to NATO’s recent aggressive movements against Russia on multiple issues that could stop the harassment from NATO warships and warplanes.

As early as during the Cold War, NATO wanted to strangle the Soviet submarine forces. After the Cold War, although Russia’s submarine forces were nothing compared to those in the Soviet heyday, they were still regarded by NATO as a major security threat because they grasped the most advanced nuclear submarine technologies and were still very powerful thanks to economic recovery in recent years.

In particular, the Dolgorukiy-class nuclear missile submarine and Yasen-class attack submarine that were newly commissioned not only continued the traditional high speed and exceptional diving depth of their predecessors, but also featured great stealth and noise-reducing performances, which to certain extent enabled them immune to sonar search and disabled NATO’s traditional anti-submarine network .

Moreover, the fact that Russian submarines have appeared in the Mediterranean and Atlantic waters at a higher frequency in recent years has made NATO highly alert, which claimed that the active operations of Russian submarines, almost as active as during the Cold War, have seriously threatened security in the North Atlantic and must be countered with new anti-submarine strategy and measures.

Therefore, having detected the large Russian submarine taskforce, four NATO members immediately dispatched seven anti-submarine patrol aircraft, including four of US Navy’s P-8A Poseidon Multimission Maritime Aircraft, Norwegian Navy’s P-3C Orion maritime surveillance aircraft , Canadian Navy’s CP-140Auroramaritime patrol aircraft and French Navy’s ATL2 maritime patrol planes, to stop and besiege the Russian submarines that had arrived at sea areas outside Norway.

In addition, American media reported that the UK, Belgium, Holland and even Germany are all ready to join the search at any time, and we may be able to see an unprecedented scene of eight NATO members searching for eight Russian nuclear submarines.

It’s foreseeable that if Russian submarines continue to operate at the bottom of the Atlantic, NATO will jointly establish a more rigorous anti-submarine system in the future, and their confrontation in that region will be more intense.

(The author is a researcher at the BRI Institute of Strategy and International Security, Fudan University)

 

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