Nær Beerenberg, Jan Mayen 1970 - Foto: Per Gram
(Red.)
The US Air Force is fixing up a remote base that could help keep an eye
on Russia
Jan 14, 2020, 11:06
Members of the 435th Contingency Response Squadron during a
runway-assessment trip at the Jan Mayen airfield in Norway in November. US
Air Force/Staff Sgt. Kyle Yeager
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US airmen traveled to the island of Jan Mayen in the Norwegian Sea in
November to assess the airfield there.
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The remote air base sits along sea lanes that Russia's Northern Fleet —
and its subs — would have to travel to reach the Atlantic Ocean, making it a
potential vantage point for NATO.
·
US airmen ventured north to the island of Jan
Mayen in the Norwegian Sea in November to survey the isolated island's
airfield.
Members of the 435th Contingency Response Squadron
"assessed runway surfaces, glideslope obstructions and firing
capes," the Air Force said in a release.
Jan Mayen is north of Iceland, astride sea lanes between the Arctic and
Atlantic oceans. Google Maps
Jan Mayen is north of Iceland and between
Greenland and Norway, the latter of which administers and supplies it with
regular flights by C-130 aircraft.
It has been used
for centuries for whaling, hunting, and, more recently,
meteorological monitoring. During the Cold War, it was a base for
communications and navigation systems. Though it doesn't have a usable port,
its airfield can be used for research and search and rescue.
The island is also above the Arctic Circle and,
the release noted, "along sea-routes connecting Russia to the Atlantic
Ocean."
The runway on Jan Mayen Island around 1968. US Navy
The assessment and survey took place from November
17 to 24, but the squadron "spent several months working with the host
nation to find the optimal time" to do it, US Air Forces Europe said in an
email.
The visit by the survey team was its first
airfield assessment there, and before the survey, US aircraft could not land
there.
"The 435th CRS was there to conduct a landing
zone survey and assessment so C-130J Super Hercules aircraft can land at the
Jan Mayen airfield in order to provide transport and resupply to the station
located there," US Air Force Staff Sgt. Kyle Yeager, a member of the
squadron, said in the release.
Members of the 435th Contingency Response Squadron conducting a
landing-zone survey. US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Kyle
Yeager
The 435th CRS is the "unit of choice"
for these airfield surveys because of its "cross-functional makeup,"
comprising more than 25 Air Force specialties that train together for unique
challenges, Air Forces Europe said.
Its members were joined by members of the 435th
Security Forces Squadron, which was there to do "a security assessment of
the airfield to ensure that it met Air Force security requirements for C-130
operations," said Tech. Sgt. Ross Caldwell, a member of that squadron.
"We must be trained and certified on many
different tasks to counter any threat and survive in any environment we are
tasked to operate in," Caldwell said.
"If the [Contingency Response Group] goes, we
go," Caldwell added, referring to the US Air Forces Europe unit that assesses and opens air bases
and performs initial airfield operations.
Options in the high north
Gunner's Mate 1st Class Christopher Carlson watches the Royal Norwegian
navy frigate Thor Heyerdahl pull alongside the USS Harry S. Truman in October
2018. US Navy/Mass Comm. Specialist Seaman Joseph A.D.
Phillips
The European Arctic has become an area of
increasing focus of the Navy and the Air Force.
The Norwegian Sea in particular has also gotten more attention, as Russia's
growing submarine fleet — which is far from the size of its Cold War
predecessor but much more sophisticated — would need to traverse it to get to
the Atlantic.
The USS Harry S. Truman became the first US
carrier to sail above the Arctic Circle since the 1990s when it arrived in the
sea in late 2018 for Trident Juncture, NATO's largest exercise since the Cold
War.
Navy ships carrying Marines to the exercise first
stopped in Iceland, where the
Navy has spent millions refurbishing
hangars at Naval Air Station Keflavik to accommodate more US Navy P-8 Poseidons,
considered the best sub-hunting aircraft out there. P-8s will visit Keflavik
more often, but the Navy has said it's not reestablishing a permanent presence,
which ended in 2006.
In November, the Navy publicized visits by surface ships and
submarines to Norway for exercises,
tweeting photos of the
nuclear-powered attack sub USS Minnesota loading MK-48 torpedoes at Haakonsvern
naval base in Bergen.
A P-8A Poseidon aircraft in Keflavik, Iceland. US
Navy/Lt. j.g. Grade Matthew Skoglund
US Air Force B-2 stealth bombers also recently made their first visit to
Iceland, landing at Keflavik in late August to exercise it "as
a forward location for the B-2, ensuring that it is engaged, postured and ready
with credible force," US Air Forces Europe said at the time.
That deployment also saw B-2s fly into the
Arctic, performing "an extended duration
sortie over the Arctic Circle" in early September. US Air Forces Europe
called it the B-2's "first mission this far north" in Europe.
While the Jan Mayen airfield may be able to handle
cargo and mobility aircraft like the C-130J, strategic bombers like the B-2 or
the B-52, which also flew into the Arctic in
late 2019, may not be able to operate there.
But it's always better to have more places to
land.
"You've got Fairford, you've got Keflavik,
you've got other places ... It's not just one spot that if you crater the
runway that's it," Jim Townsend, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center
for a New American Security and a former Defense Department official, told Business Insider after
the B-2s visited Iceland last year.
US Air Force fuel-distribution operators conduct hot-pit refueling on a
B-2 Spirit bomber at the Keflavik air base in August. US
Air Force/Senior Airman Thomas Barley
Jan Mayen's airfield "would add another
option in that region, and the surveys are often a critical piece of the Global
Air Mobility Support System, ensuring unfamiliar airfields are safe to land for
a variety of Air Force mobility aircraft," US Air Forces Europe said in
its email.
During the Cold War, Iceland sat in the middle of
the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap, through which Russian subs would have to pass to
reach the North Atlantic. Russian submarines' newfound ability to strike cities
and infrastructure in Europe with sub-launched missiles has led to arguments that NATO needs to
operate farther north, closer to the Barents Sea, to keep an eye on
them.
Jan Mayen is closer to the Barents — but if
there's a role it could play in operations up there, the US military isn't
saying.
"It would be inappropriate for us to
speculate about possible future operations by US or partner nation
forces," US Air Forces Europe said when asked about the island's future.
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