America's Military Trails Russia and China in Race for the Melting Arctic
On patrol in the Bering Sea last fall, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball spotted seven Chinese and Russian vessels steaming through the frigid waters in a double line near Alaska's Aleutian Islands.
The Kimball's crew identified the main Chinese ship as the Nanchang, one of a new class of cruiser-destroyers that can launch more than 100 guided missiles. The Russian and Chinese ships, which were on a joint exercise, sailed north and east into U.S. waters, sending an unmistakable message about the Arctic's strategic value to Moscow and Beijing.
Once a lonely and largely impassable expanse where countries worked together to extract natural resources, the region is increasingly contested territory, and the U.S. is trailing the Russian-Chinese partnership in icebreakers, ports and experience. As sea ice melts and traffic increases on the southern edges of the Arctic Ocean, governments are maneuvering in ways that mirror the great-power rivalries seen in lower latitudes.
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