On Monday, the port of Grøtsund north of Tromsø, Northern Norway, was visited by an American submarine. The Norwegian Joint Headquarters confirmed that the submarine belongs to the US Navy, but does not state its name or which class it belongs to, writes NRK.

On Monday morning, one could sense such a visit by following the sea chart Marine Traffic as three Norwegian military vessels sailed in Grøtsund and the surrounding area. These were the corvette KNM Oddane, a MOB boat, and a RIB boat. Tugboats were also in the area.

This is the tenth reported US submarine call at Grøtsund, which was made a port of call for allied nuclear-powered vessels in Norway in 2020 (see overview below). Here they can get new supplies, change crews, and carry out other administrative tasks.

In April, the Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority said to High North News that a doubling of the number of allied submarines in Norway is expected – respectively to the Port of Grøtsund and Haakonsvern in Bergen. (Norwegian only). […]

The Los Angeles class consists of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines and form the backbone of the American submarine forces, according to the US Navy. Of around 40 in operation, 30 are equipped with twelve Vertical Launch System tubes for firing Tomahawk cruise missiles. They are also equipped with torpedoes or anti-ship missiles. Läs artikel

Många pekar på Ryssland, som äger ledningarna via bolaget Gazprom. Att spränga skulle kunna vara ett sätt att sätta energipress på Tyskland och Europa inför vintern.

Men efter några månader kommer andra bilder. Den kontroversielle journalisten Seymour Hersh pekar ut USA, men hans uppgifter avfärdas som fiktion. Flera medier börjar rapportera om en pro-ukrainsk grupp som ska ha hyrt en segelbåt i Rostock, och tyska utredare ska ha hittat sprängämnen i båten.

Ukrainas statsledning slår ifrån sig, och utredningarna av sabotaget måste hantera möjliga villospår och vilseledning. Den svenske åklagaren Mats Ljungqvist säger att misstanken om att en stat ligger bakom har blivit starkare – och att han tror att det kommer att gå att slå fast vem som är ansvarig. Läs artikel

We, the Defence Ministers of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom – members of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) – met today in Amsterdam. We discussed the current situation in Ukraine and explored how the JEF can respond to, and further mitigate, the security threats to our nations, including Hybrid challenges.
We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to support the people of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s appalling, illegal, unprovoked attack; and stand with Ukraine to support its right to be a sovereign, independent and democratic nation. The JEF Participant Nations, along with our Allies and partners, are responding decisively to provide military and humanitarian assistance, at pace, to ensure Ukraine is best able to defend itself, and will continue to do so as long as it takes. Läs uttalandet

Ett stödpaket till Ukrainas luftförsvar till ett värde motsvarande cirka 1,25 miljarder kronor från Internationella fonden för Ukraina (IFU) presenterades den 13 juni. Stödet kommer att stärka Ukrainas förmåga att skydda sin befolkning, kritisk infrastruktur och stridande trupper. […]

– Ukraina har behov av ytterligare luftvärn vilket vi nu kan tillföra. Att säkra luftrummet är avgörande för att Ukraina ska kunna återta sitt territorium och återfå sin frihet. Stödet är ytterligare exempel på hur vi samarbetar internationellt för att långsiktigt stödja Ukraina mot ryska aggressioner. Det politiska, ekonomiska och militära stödet till Ukraina är en av vår tids viktigaste uppgifter, säger försvarsminister Pål Jonson. Läs pressmeddelande

[…]Vladimir Putin already had ambitious plans for the northern sea route, seeking to more than double the cargo traffic. But over the past six years, Russia has also built 475 military sites along its northern border. The port of Severomorsk, on the Kola peninsula, is the base of the country’s northern fleet. In recent years, the Russians have reactivated 50 Soviet outposts in the Arctic and equipped its northern fleet with nuclear and conventional missiles. […]

A militarised Arctic would undermine scientific cooperation and pose an existential threat. Somehow, we need a diplomatic effort to separate the politics of war from the imperatives of climate research. During the cold war, the USSR and the west had cultural and scientific exchanges that kept back-channels of communication open when political temperatures were running high. Now, more than ever, we need similar initiatives to thaw the permafrost between Russian and western research efforts. Läs artikel

Til sammen brukte de ni atomvåpenstatene 82,9 milliarder dollar på sine arsenaler i fjor, ifølge en rapport fra nobelprismottakeren Den internasjonale kampanjen for forbud mot atomvåpen (Ican). USA står for over halvparten av atomvåpeninvesteringene, 43,7 milliarder dollar. Deretter følger Kina (11,9 milliarder) og Russland (9,6 milliarder).

Totalsummen tilsvarer nesten 800 milliarder kroner med en gjennomsnittskurs for 2022. I snitt blir dette altså drøyt halvannen million kroner per minutt. Läs artikel

Joe Biden created for the U.S. a war like no other, one where others die and the U.S. simply sits back and pays the bills on a gargantuan scale. No attempts are made at diplomacy by the Americans, and the diplomatic efforts of others like the Chinese are dismissed as evil attempts to gain influence in the area (similar to the dismissal of Chinese diplomatic work in the Yemen war.) Biden is coming close to achieving 1984’s end state of perpetual warfare, while only putting a handful of American lives at risk. He has learned lessons from the Cold War, and has already put them into play. Can we call it the Biden Doctrine yet?

Biden’s strategy is clear enough now after well more than a year of conflict; what he has been sending to Ukraine jumped from helmets and uniforms to F-16s in only fifteen months and shows no signs of stopping. The problem is U.S. weapons are never enough for victory and are always “just enough” to allow the battle to go on until the next round. If the Ukrainians think they are playing the U.S. for arms, they best check who is really paying for everything in blood.

Putin is playing this game himself in a way, careful not to introduce anything too powerful, such as strategic bombers, and upset the balance and offer Biden the chance to intervene in the war directly: One can hear old man Joe Biden on TV now, explaining American airstrikes are needed to prevent a genocide, the go-to excuse he learned at Obama’s knee. Ukraine will learn even with the promise of the F-16 it can’t acquire aircraft and train up pilots fast enough (minimum training time is 18-24 months), and next will be begging the U.S. to serve as its air force. That’s what the current escalation portends: air power.[…]

The Ukrainian chamber of commerce called the country “the world’s largest construction site.” The New York Times echoed one prediction that claimed rebuilding efforts will cost $750 billion. Ukraine reconstruction will be, says the Times, a “gold rush…. Russia is stepping up its offensive heading into the second year of the war, but already the staggering rebuilding task is evident. Hundreds of thousands of homes, schools, hospitals and factories have been obliterated along with critical energy facilities and miles of roads, rail tracks and seaports. The profound human tragedy is unavoidably also a huge economic opportunity.” Earlier this year JP Morgan and Zelensky signed a memorandum of understanding stipulating Morgan would assist Ukraine in its reconstruction. […]

But success or failure, the contractors always got paid in our Wars of Terror. With that in mind, more than 300 companies from 22 countries signed up for a Rebuild Ukraine exhibition and conference in Warsaw. At the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, a standing-room-only crowd packed a conference called Ukraine House Davos to discuss investment opportunities. Läs artikel

Hangarskipet USS Gerald R. Ford har avrundet sitt opphold i Norge, meldte Forsvaret fredag.

Da hadde den amerikanske hangarskipgruppen operert i nordnorske farvann over en ukes tid under Nato-kommando. Gruppen inkluderer missilkrysseren USS Normandy, destroyerne USS Ramage og USS Thomas Hudner, og muligens også ubåter. Gjennom nevnte periode under Nato-kommando har de amerikanske fartøyene trent sammen med norske og britiske styrker – primært i Vestfjorden, Nordland.

Norge har først og fremst deltatt i marineaktiviteten med fregatten KNM Otto Sverdrup og korvetten KNM Steil.

Storbritannia har medvirket med destroyeren HMS Defender, fregatten HMS Northumberland, tankskipet RFA Tidespring – samt med tilhørende kapabiliteter innenfor undervannskrigføring (presumptivt ubåter) og en luftskvadron med Wildcat maritime angrepshelikoptre. Läs artikel

Regeringen beslutade den 8 juni 2023 att Försvarsmakten får vidta förberedelser med Nato och med stater som är medlemmar i Nato för att möjliggöra framtida gemensamma operationer. Förberedelserna får bestå i tillfällig basering av utländsk militär materiel och personal på svenskt territorium. Syftet är att verka konfliktavhållande i närområdet och att stärka försvaret av Sverige.