A NATO Flotilla Sails Back Into the Cold War

Some of the roughest waters in the world are in what sailors call the High North, especially the Barents Sea on the northwest Arctic coast of Russia. In a tightly confined bay, the base of Severomorsk is home to Russia’s most capable naval force, the Northern Fleet. This week a flotilla including three American destroyers, a massive supply ship and a British frigate entered the Barents, the first such venture for U.S. surface ships since the end of the Cold War. Seeking to avoid any surprises, the U.S. Navy informed the Russians of the deployment, although there isn’t any requirement to do so under international law. The area where the flotilla will operate is clearly high seas, through which any nation is free to transit. The Navy reports it will be conducting a variety of training events, including for anti-submarine warfare.

This is a difficult place to operate, even in relatively mild late spring. It is also famous to naval personnel from the days of the Murmansk convoys in World War II, when allied ships were bringing war materials to Russian partners in the fight against Hitler. I sailed those northern waters (not quite to the Barents, but inside the Arctic Circle) years ago in both an aircraft carrier (relatively smooth sailing) and in a destroyer about a tenth the size of the carrier. The destroyer struggled in heavy seas, and over a third of my crew lay flat on their backs with seasickness. Both deployments were post-Cold War and in relatively benign times in terms of interacting with the Russian fleet. That is not the case today.