The Norwegians are reporting that Russian submarine and bomber sorties jumped in the latter half of 2007. While this isn’t exactly breaking news, the “hey, it’s cool guys” reaction from the Norwegians–a nation that once postured its entire military against Soviet land, air, and sea incursions–is surprising.
“Ability” is still questionable, the Russian military took an awful pounding during the 90s. Which might explain Norway’s relatively sanguine attitude towards the fact that Murmansk is once again becoming a real beehive of air and sea activity. Cool with it or not, the Norwegians should–at the very least–be reevaluating their own post Cold War force reductions. And so should the United States. Just recently, Canadian interceptors had to shoulder the NORAD air defense emergency load while U.S. Air Force officials investigated why our F-15s are falling apart in mid-air. With all due respect to the Canadian Air Force, leaving our northern flank relatively undefended would have never happened during the Cold War, and should never happen in this modern age of airline hijackings. Unfortunately, this is the new dichotomy of war that has been forced upon our military: strategic provocations from Russian bombers and Chinese subs, and tactical threats from terrorists who operate outside the bounds of the nation-state. I’ve given the Air Force their share of grief for sucking up a kingly share of resources that need to be distributed amongst the ground pounders, but that’s a problem that needs to be solved by a Congress that is grossly underfunding the force, not the blue-suiters who are struggling to keep their planes flying. There was a time when U.S. forces obsessed over their ability to fight two different wars in two different theaters. Today, they must fight two completely different types of wars in myriad theaters. Unfortunately, they may not have the cash to do either.
