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June 13, 2012 | Strategy Page

With the growing oil and natural gas discoveries along Russia's northern border, the government has ordered the
formation of a special brigade of arctic troops to patrol the vast region, and be ready to deal with any problems that
might require military force up there.

To assist this new brigade, the Russian Air Force is reopening three arctic air bases that were closed after the Cold War
ended in 1991. Novaya Zemlya, Naryan-Mar and Franz-Josef Land are all off the northwest arctic coast of Russia (just east
of Norway). Naryan-Mar is on the mainland, the other two are on islands off the coast. Work on the Franz-Josef Land base
(the northernmost Russian military base) will begin next year, while the other two are being refurbished now.



Last year the Russian Army began selecting 8,000 troops for the new Arctic Brigade, which will be stationed in the
Kola Peninsula, near the borders with Finland and Norway. The Kola Peninsula has long contained key air, naval and
army bases. The new brigade will be ready for duty by the end of the year.

The brigade will be air mobile, and will possess vehicles that can move over snow and ice. Many of the communications
will be satellite based, and everything will be able to handle the extreme cold found along Russia's northern coast.



All Arctic nations have specialized units like this, which often contain a large proportion of tribal peoples long native to
the Arctic. The United States, for example, has a Winter Warfare School in Alaska, and a reserve brigade there organized
and trained to deal with situations in the vast Alaskan backcountry. Canada also has an Arctic Warfare School, and
troops recruited from native (Inuit/Eskimo/First Nations, Etc) populations. Finland has a similar system, and now Russia
is apparently seeking to implement something similar.



Climate change may open a sea route along the north coast of Eurasia and North America, and that would also make it
cheaper to move oil discovered in those arctic waters off the coast. With all this new wealth potential up there, nations
bordering the arctic are getting ready to defend their appreciating frozen assets.