Arctic rush

You do realize this is English language forum?
Unless you provide proper description and summary of stuff you link to nobody will be bothering with it

kvs wrote:That graphic is BS.  The "deepest oil filled basin" does not exist.  Basically all of the Arctic Ocean floor aside from the shallow shelves extending from
the coasts is composed of metamorphosed sedimentary and igneous rock.   The metamorphic sedimentary rock may have held oil and gas deposits in
the past, but they have literally been cooked off.   Nobody on this planet extracts oil and gas from such strata.   Even the so-called non-conventional
plays such as the Bakken and the Bazhenov are not metamorphosed sedimentary but have shale-like rock that encases porous sedimentary rock such
as dolomite.  

In addition to cooking off the hydrocarbons, metamorphosis also produces very low porosity rock similar to igneous rock.  So there is nowhere to store
any gas and oil.

https://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/starweb/geoscan/servlet.starweb?path=geoscan/downloade.web&search1=R=287868

The fight over the Arctic basin is all about the spice flow and to a secondary extent the potential rare earth element deposits.   But
no underwater mining is occurring now and or in the near to medium term future.   The NATO west wants to control shipping through
the North East passage.   After much yapping over the decades about the North West passage, it is a fail and ships will be hugging
the Russian coast in the decades to come.   The self-anointed gods of this planet, the yanquis, think that they can control this
passage like they control the Suez and the Panama canals.    Get f*cked, losers.

Russia’s Rosneft to Teach Its Deck-Based Drones Iceberg Marking

PH Exploration, a geological explorer and subsidiary of the Russian oil company Rosneft, will hold ice observation trials in 2019 using the deck-based unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In particular, it is planned to design a drone-carried device that plants trackers on icebergs.

Key target of the project is ‘to cut down costs for aerial ice observation through application of unmanned aerial vehicles while building up the corporate Ice Control System (ICS)".

The experiments with unmanned vehicles will be held in two stages. The first one will be a part of Kara-Summer-2019 expedition in the seas of the Arctic Ocean. The second stage will be a test at the onshore facility, says the project specification.

During the ice recon mission, the drone will move up to 100 km away from the mother ship. Data exchange must be performed without satellite communication aids. Instead, it is planned to use UAV-based transponder. Meanwhile, the customers limited the recon drone’s maximum takeoff weight: it may not exceed 30 kg.

For iceberg marking, it is planned to apply AIS- and ARGOS-type transponders.

An expert formerly engaged in ice reconnaissance for the Northern Fleet told Mil.Press Today that the special-purpose UAVs could be more suitable for some local missions than piloted aircraft. "There’s a great difference between using, say, Tu-142 and a small-size drone, as the latter is cheaper and less resourse-consuming. If there’s no need to check the situation across the whole Arctic Ocean in one sortie, a small drone is more preferable".

Earlier, a UAV for ice observations at the Arctic latitudes was presented by Russian Helicopters. The unmanned system named ArcticSupervision is equipped with an X-band HD side-looking radar; the drone is powered by a diesel engine and capable to carry up to 70 kg payload.

Russia to Equip Future Arctic Fleet with Domestic-Made Electric Heaters

Russian ships designed to operate in polar latitudes are equipped with national electric heating systems. In particular, such equipment will be installed in the ice-resistant self-propelled platform named North Pole and laid on April 10 at Admiralteyskie Verfi, the shipyard’s CEO Alexander Buzakov told Mil.Press Today. As for him, using the Russian-made systems is more suitable for the company.

The question is the new project that replaced foreign analogs. The system is made in Russia, added Buzakov.

According to the director of Admiralteyskie Verfi, such system will be mounted on the Project 22600 icebreaker Viktor Chernomyrdin and the first Project 23550 arctic-zone patrol ship.

The lead ship of this type, Ivan Papanin, will be launched late in 2019 and commissioned in 2023, Buzakov said. The second patrol icebreaker, Nikolai Zubov, will join the Russian Navy in 2024.

Earlier, Russian designers used to include imported heating systems in the icebreaker projects. Starting from Ilya Muromets, the Project 21180 lead icebreaker, the heating systems installed are domestically-made, the head designer of Vympel Design Bureau, Mikhail Bakhrov, told Mil.Press Today. By the way, deck heating systems are required by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping.

The system was mounted on the Project IBSV01 icebreakers Alexander Sannikov and Andrey Vilnitsky, too, and the Project 21900M icebreaker Novorossiysk. Russian heating systems have effectively proved themselves on the polar ships built by the Vyborg Shipyard, its director Alexander Solovyov told Mil.Press Today in December 2018. The similar equipment will be mounted on the Project 21180M military icebreakers.

According to Denis Shevchenko, director of Bee Pitron, a company designing marine heating systems, the equipment features simplicity and operates on the ‘switch-and-forget’ principle. It can be customized for a particular ship. "We perform thermal analysis for each solution, design a 3D model, and hold trials", Shevchenko said. "All heated elements are designed and integrated at a customer’s request. Besides, the system is accompanied by the standard documentation", he added.

New ship to handle all nuclear waste from Rosatom’s Arctic operations

New Heat Exchanger for Arctic Helicopters Featured at HeliRussia-2019

At the HeliRussia-2019 exhibition, the Russian research company NPO Nauka presented the model of a new air/oil heat exchanger designed for one of Kamov's advanced helicopters. By a mechanical valve, it maintains optimal oil inlet temperature for engine or transmission.

The designers tried to address the issue of helicopters operation in severe climatic conditions of the far north and hot regions.

The frosty air at the inlet of a conventional heat exchanger, where the flow always passes the matrix, can result in the oil temperature too low for the helicopter takeoff. This is why, in the Arctic, helicopters need long warm-up, a representative of NPO Nauka told Mil.Press Today at the company’s pavilion.

The new heat exchanger features the mechanical bypass valve in the cover. Depending on the flow temperature, it directs the oil either through the heat-exchanging matrix or, without cooling, directly through the valve unit, or separates the oil: one part flows to the matrix, another one goes directly. This helps to avoid oil temperature problems when changing of climate conditions of the helicopter operations.

The heat exchanger’s model has already passed vibration tests and was cut to check the manufacturing quality. After that, the heat exchanger tailored for JSC Kavov was shown at the exhibition.

The 3-day long helicopter-related industrial exhibition HeliRussia-2019 started in Moscow on May 16.

Mining and metallurgy company Nornickel and oil producer Gazprom Neft strike deals with nuclear power company Rosatom over use of icebreakers.

It is nuclear powered icebreakers «Taymyr» and «Vaygach» that are the objects of the deals recently signed by the two companies with Rosatom, newspaper RBC reports........



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Tsavo Lion wrote:Maybe that's true for most W. Europeans; but Sweden & Finland of N. Europe do cooperate with NATO more & more.
Denmark is also concerned about Russian buildup in the Arctic: https://www.russiadefence.net/t2746p375-arctic-rush#270040

Trump, Niinistö remarks show two different visions of the Arctic

Trump emphasized keeping non-Arctic nations out of the Arctic while Niinistö focused on environmental protection and keeping the region free from tension.

In a joint press conference that was overshadowed by U.S. President Donald Trump defending his actions in an ongoing whistleblower scandal that has prompted an impeachment inquiry, Trump and his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinistö also spoke briefly about the Arctic.

The two offered different visions of the region. Trump asserted the need to keep other nations out of the Arctic, while Niinisto emphasized keeping tensions out of the region.

“America and Finland are also working together to advance stability, freedom of navigation, and respect for national sovereignty in the Arctic,” Trump said, according to a White House transcript. “Both of our nations are committed to a secure Arctic region — free from external intrusion, interference, and coercion. Simply put, we believe that the affairs of the Arctic should be governed by the actual nations of the Arctic. And, as you know, there are other people coming into the Arctic, and we don’t like it. And we can’t let it happen, and we won’t let it happen.”

Trump appeared to be referring to China, which has in recent years shown a growing interest in the Arctic, releasing its first Arctic policy white paper in 2018, in which it labelled itself a “near-Arctic state.”

That position prompted a harsh rebuke from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a staunch Trump supporter, who lashed out at China at a speech in Rovaniemi, Finland, earlier this year on the eve of the Arctic Council’s ministerial meeting.

Niinistö, in contrast, spoke of the need to keep tensions low in the Arctic, and to protect the region’s environment.

“Maybe there are also resources, but there are huge risks,” Niinistö said. “One of them is that we should keep the low tension we are used to have there. And that is what we have been discussing, and I do appreciate (President Trump’s) position to emphasize that. It is not a place for military.”

Most Arctic nations have, at least in public statements, echoed some version of this idea of “Arctic exceptionalism” — that relationships in the region can, and should, remain immune to tensions elsewhere. It’s a powerful enough idea that it was part of a push behind the nomination of the Arctic Council for a Nobel Peace Prize.

In practice, however, the Arctic has become more militarized in recent years, with Russia re-opening old Cold War bases in the region or establishing new ones, and the United States belatedly following a similar path, stationing Marines in Norway, for example, and reactivating the Navy’s 2nd Fleet.

Trump’s talk of “freedom of navigation” references disputes between the U.S. and other Arctic nations about who has sovereignty over Arctic sea routes — including claims from Russia to the Northern Sea Route and from Canada to the Northwest Passage. The U.S. Navy considered conducting “freedom of navigation operations,” or FONOPS, in the region this summer. Late last month, the U.S. Navy dispatched four guided-missile vessels to northern waters and established a temporary command center in Iceland.

Niinistö also diverged from Trump in his call to protect the environment — and in particular to curb black carbon, an issue Niinistö has long championed. Black carbon, also known as soot, can speed the rate of ice melt in the Arctic.

“And melting of sea ice in Arctic is very crucial,” Niinistö said. “I used to say that if we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe.”

Trump, meanwhile, has previously called climate change a hoax, and moved to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accords. In May, the Arctic Council ministerial in Finland failed to issue a joint statement at its conclusion because the Pompeo-led U.S. delegation objected to its language about climate change.