ADM. DARYL CAUDLE

THE SCANDIC SLUSEHOLMEN HOTEL COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, MOLESTIEN 11 2450 COPENHAGEN SV

COMMANDER, U.S. FLEET FORCES COMMAND

24 April 2024

• Good morning everyone, and thank you, Chairman Neuffer for your opening remarks and wonderful introduction!
• I would also like to thank and recognize Defence I-Q for gathering this group of Arctic experts and practitioners today and for your commitment to a strong NATO alliance in order to maintain deterrence and enhanced presence in this region with growing strategic interest. All eyes, both like-minded and contentious, are organizing the chess pieces to capitalize on Earth’s final frontier.
• It is not every day I get to speak at a symposium centered on the Arctic – nor is it common for me to visit the incredible city of Copenhagen! So when Gillian and the team asked if I was interested in speaking, I jumped at this fantastic opportunity!

 

• In fact, this is my first visit to Denmark, and I cannot thank you enough for your gracious hospitality and ‘warm’ welcome my staff and I have received across the board. This city, its history, its amazing sites, and its gracious people are truly special!
• So, what is a Navy Admiral from Norfolk, Virginia doing here and what could I possibly have to say about the Arctic?
• First, for those of you who are unsure of who I am or what I do as the United States Fleet Forces Commander, I am charged by my boss, Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Chief of Naval Operations with organizing, training, and equipping a force of over 125,000 Sailors and Civilians with hundreds of ships, submarines, and aircraft and support facilities across the U-S Atlantic Fleet that can ultimately prevail in a high-end conflict while meeting the objectives of our forward Combatant Commanders.
• In short, we train and equip ships like the IKE Carrier Strike Group to include the U-S-S CARNEY that has been operating in the Red Sea and Eastern Med for over 7 months, defending international shipping by working closely with Allies and Partners to ensure the rules-based international order is safe from attack, operating far forward inside a hostile forces’ weapons engagement zone to defend our combined interests around the world – and if needed, as we continue to see – fight and win on terms favorable to the United States and the combined national interests of our Allies and Partners.
• Additionally, I have two other command hats in which I report as the Naval Component Commander to U-S Northern Command as well as U-S Strategic Command in which I oversee all maritime homeland defense including much of the Arctic as well as employing all naval strategic forces.
• U-S Northern Command is also ‘dual-hatted’ as NORAD, the unique U-S and Canadian bi-national command, that was established to defend North America from Cold War-era Russian strategic bombers entering U-S and Canadian airspace from the Arctic approaches.
• As General VanHerck, the previous Commander of Northern Command, said:
  • “For decades, our nation has enjoyed the benefits of dominant military capabilities in all domains, and we relied on our geography to serve as a barrier to keep our nations beyond the reach of most conventional threats…”
• And that’s just not true today.
• The ability of the Joint Force to operate and campaign in the Arctic remains a pressing concern for NORTHCOM and all Maritime Services under my authority as the Joint Forces Maritime Component Commander, or “JFMCC.”
• Therefore, as the NORTHCOM JFMCC, I’m responsible for defending our homeland and its maritime approaches, in which I’m specifically tasked to deter, detect, deny, and defeat threats to the United States, conduct security cooperation activities with allies and partners, and support civil authorities including humanitarian and disaster relief.
• The melting away of Arctic Sea ice has led to increased human activities in the Arctic, and has heightened interest in, and raised concerns about the region’s future across many dimensions. The United States, by virtue of Alaska, is an Arctic country and has substantial interests in the region.
• And the United States, by virtue of NATO, remains committed to ensuring the Arctic and any interested nation adheres to the rules-based international order.
• And as I will cover later, the vast frontier of the polar ice cap is something that has my utmost attention from my seat as the United States Fleet Forces Commander.
• But before I get to that, I would be remiss if I did not take time to brag on what I consider to be the world's premier fighting force, the United States Navy. I could not be more proud of our Navy team of Sailors and of our civilians who execute the Navy's mission every single day. Our Navy team operates far forward to preserve the peace, respond in crisis, and win decisively in war.
• Right now, those Sailors and service members are standing the watch around the world and around the clock from the seabed to space, in cyberspace, and in the information environment, to deter aggression, promote our nation's prosperity and security, and provide options to our nation’s decision makers.
• I am honored to be here today representing that group, thrilled to bring together all in one room the operators, the subject matter experts designing our platforms, researchers and academia interested in studying the Arctic, our Allies and Partners, and of course, the industrial base that will build and maintain our combat systems… we need All Hands on Deck!
• Finally, thank you, to our distinguished speakers, industry members, flag and general officers, and all of our service members, Allies and Partners… thank you for making the time to be here today.
• I am thrilled to hear from leading Arctic Commands and their leaders who are tackling the challenges of the region so we can discuss what capabilities we all need to adapt to the harsh Arctic environment, as well as improve our understanding of emerging threats in the Arctic.
• This conference gives us the chance to create productive dialogues with senior military leaders and industry partners in order to foster new connections across the Arctic regions and beyond that can lead to enhanced cooperation and improved security for allies.

 

• So, for the rest of my time this morning, I would like to walk you through my “theory of success” and what steps we in the United States, in close coordination with our Allies and Partners, that must be taken to position ourselves best as the Arctic transforms, as new passageways open, as trade routes and infrastructure emerge, and as adversarial players attempt to gain the advantage in this region.
• The P-R-C and Russia continue to invest in Arctic capabilities as both seek to increase presence and influence in the region while shifting and defining the rules to their advantage. More than 50 percent of NORTHCOM’s area of responsibility is in the Arctic; therefore, my priorities in the region continue to focus on increased presence, campaigning through joint training and exercises, and close collaboration with allies and partners.
• The new NORTHCOM and NORAD Commander and my boss concerning Arctic matters, GEN Guillot and I are perfectly aligned, calling for increased U-S ‘presence’ via exercises along Alaska’s coast to help check growing Chinese and Russian military activity in the Arctic, saying:
  • “The best way for us to counter them is to have presence of our own. So, the execution of exercises [and] patrols, in all domains, is extremely important off of our coast… [to include] a strong exercise program, multinational, a lot of partners, showing that we have the resolve to defend that most strategic area.”
• The effects of environmental change in the Arctic will have significant impacts on accessibility, infrastructure, and competition for the foreseeable future.
• This will allow for new opportunities and bring new challenges to all of our Northern approaches. It is my belief that in order to be part of the conversation, we must persistently execute three inter-related Levels of Effort today: First, Maintain Enhanced Presence in the Region; second, Strengthen Cooperative Partnerships, and third, Build a More Capable, Combined Arctic Maritime Force.
• As maritime and Arctic nations, we must decide what that enhanced presence looks like and what investments we need to make today to support sustained operations in the Arctic. At a minimum, we must leverage the strong relationships and capabilities that we, as combined arms teammates, must bring to bear to achieve our presence and deterrent goals. We must invest in proven capabilities, improve our access to critical infrastructure and modernize our C-5-I systems if we are to interoperate with confidence at high latitudes and in the harsh Arctic environment.
• To achieve these ends, we must operate efficiently and effectively within and across U-S Department of Defense and U-S Military Services, our Congress, Industry in and outside of the United States, the International Intelligence stakeholders, including NATO.
• And you are seeing that happen as our D-o-D will soon release its updated Arctic Strategy.
• Make no mistake about it – we face formidable threats on the horizon. And, while the nature of war never truly changes, these threats and new threat vectors are fundamentally changing the character of how we prepare our Navies and Joint Forces to fight.

 

• I am sure you are all incredibly familiar with these threats. Strategic competitors and peer adversaries must be faced head on with purpose and realistic expectations with respect to the force we will have over the next several decades. I know many others have or will speak about these adversaries and the threats they pose; however, here’s my quick review so that I can tell you what I want to do about it.
• The sea, to include the Arctic from the Marginal Ice Zone to the North Pole, has once again emerged as a primary focal point for peer competition. Where the international commons are threatened and attacked with kinetic and non-kinetic fires that are growing in range, complexity, and precision. The stakes have never been higher.
• China and Russia are the two great strategic competitors.
• Now, what is really unknown, is the ever-growing concern of a new ‘no-limits relationship’ between these two powers. Just last summer, they amplified and increased the amount of joint training, joint exercises, and joint demonstrations. Bombers from both Russia and China operated out of China then they flew a joint mission into the Philippine Sea towards Guam.
• In the fall, a Russian and Chinese maritime Task Force of several surface and subsurface platforms conducted the largest combined patrol to date within the INDO-PACOM and NORTHCOM areas of responsibility.
• Just in December, four Russian and two Chinese aircraft flew a joint military air patrol composed of H-6 and T-U-95 bombers and S-U-35 and J-16 fighters, which then entered South Korean Air Defense Identification Zone then turned east toward Japan.
• The Arctic provides a good example of the changing physical and strategic environment and is a zone of significant international competition. Both Russia and China are increasing their activity in the Arctic.
• Additionally, diminished sea ice and competition over resources present overlapping challenges in this strategically significant region.
• Everyone should realize, Russia is attempting a ‘first to market’ approach in the Arctic. To corner this market, Russia’s government considers certain parts of the Northern Sea Route to be internal Russian waters and has asserted a right to regulate commercial shipping passing through these waters – a position that creates a source of tension with the U-S government, with allies and partners, even with China, who all consider those transit routes to be international waters.
• Russia’s fielding of advanced, long-range cruise missiles capable of being launched from Russian territory and flying through the northern approaches and seeking to strike targets in the United States and Canada have emerged as a significant military threat in the Arctic.
• In the Fall of 2022, Russia added its first SEVERODVINSK-class conventional and nuclear capable cruise missile submarine to the Pacific Fleet, which poses a new challenge to our defense of the western approaches to North America to include the Aleutians. Just last month, for the first time in over two years, the Russians sent two Bear bombers down along that avenue through what we call the G-I-U-K gap approaching the Canadian and the United States Air Defense Identification Zones.
• Simply said, we cannot sit idly by and allow Russia to establish their “9-dashed line” around the North Pole.
• And China has their own aspirations. China is not content to remain a mere observer in the growing competition, declaring itself a “near-Arctic state,” and has taken action to normalize its naval and commercial presence in the region to increase its access to lucrative resources and shipping routes.”
• The P-R-C refers to the new trans-Arctic shipping routes as the Polar Silk Road, and identifies these routes as a third major transportation corridor for the Belt and Road Initiative. China, like in other contested areas of the world is conducting regional maritime grey-zone activities under the cloud of a technical or scientific research, but we think it’s certainly multi-mission to include military operations.
• China is heavily investing in polar icebreakers, completing construction on its third in December 2023 with many more planned. For reference, the United States has two and they have been in service since 1976.
• So in quick summary, Russia and the P-R-C’s joint exercises have unquestionably increased, their joint operations have increased, their interest and investments capabilities pertaining into the Arctic have increased, and to be frank their rhetoric has increased. I only see their partnership growing closer, and that should be concerning for us all.
• That's a dangerous and unpredictable all-domain challenge that we must seek to understand more fully including the complexity of the three-body strategic deterrence landscape we now face.
• Today, as most in this room know, 90% of all trade travels across the world’s oceans – with seaborne trade expected to double over the next 15 years. The Arctic may be the world’s smallest ocean, but the Arctic basin is full of growing global economic and geopolitical importance, spurring more activity than ever before. The Arctic region is estimated to hold 30% of world’s undiscovered natural gas reserves, 13% of global conventional oil reserves, and ~$1T worth of rare earth minerals.
• Arctic waters will see increasing transits of cargo and natural resources to global markets along with military activity, regional maritime traffic, tourism, and legitimate/illegitimate global fishing fleets.
• Okay – so we have strategic competition; we have a shifting geopolitical landscape; we have strategic chokepoints being threatened; we have new waterways beginning to open; and we have adversary navies modernizing around us at a staggering pace… What are we doing to compete and sustain our advantages?
• I have just described a very complex geopolitical and highly uncertain environment. And when it comes to the Arctic, we are at an inflection point, where our day-to-day decisions must be rooted in winning this strategic competition across government, defense, and business sectors.
• U-S Naval forces must operate more assertively across the Arctic Region to prevail in day-to-day competition as we protect the homeland, keep the Arctic seas free and open, and deter coercive behavior and conventional aggression.
• In order to do that we need to act on these three Levels of Effort I mentioned earlier, specifically: Maintain an Enhanced Presence, Strengthen Cooperative Partnerships, and Build a More Capable Arctic Maritime Force.

 

• Our Navy is the greatest the world has ever known because of our truly outstanding people.
• Over 155 years ago, U-S-S JAMESTOWN (1844 Sloop of War) stood our northern watch as the U-S flag was raised over Alaska. Since then, our Sailors and submarines were the first to reach the North Pole, departing from our shores and those of our allies and partners who have long supported our Arctic operations.
• Our Marines have long trained and operated in the Arctic. During the Aleutian campaign in World War II, our naval forces bravely fought alongside our joint and allied partners to repel the enemy’s attack.
• It was the proficiency and forward presence of American naval power in the Arctic Region that helped bring a peaceful end to the Cold War.
• As the Director and crafter of the United States’ Arctic Strategy, Director Esther McClure, she says:
  • “The U-S has long recognized the Arctic as a linchpin to homeland defense. During the Cold War, the Arctic served as an avenue of approach for Soviet bombers and missiles in the event of an attack on the U-S.”
• The soft underbelly if you will.
• Our adversaries know our challenges here, and the scope and pace of our their ambitions and capabilities in the Arctic will require new ways of thinking and applying naval power and supremacy.
• For the United States to maintain our competitive advantage, we must Maintain Enhanced Presence in this Region so that our Sailors, Marines and Coastguardsmen can be an effective and integral part of our nation’s integrated deterrence strategy.
• It goes without saying, to have sustained presence in order to strongly influence if not dictate terms with our seat at the table, we must invest in infrastructure to support our forces there. That doesn’t necessarily mean only U-S ports, though I applaud the multi-million dollar project to expand facilities at Nome, Alaska, which will become our first organic deep-water Arctic port capable of housing cruise, cargo, and military ships.
• Our security and prosperity will remain linked to the overseas basing options within other friendly nations like Iceland, Canada, and Norway to name a few.
• While Alaska remains our foothold to the Arctic, we have what Russia and China don’t – a network of Allies and Partners. Of the eight Arctic nations on the Arctic Council, seven are members of NATO. We must fully share the robust network and infrastructure with our allies and partners to continue to operate forward.
• As the U-S military continues to conduct routine patrols, and as we increase our operations and footprint given the expanding access and interests, we must conduct realistic and high-end training in the world’s most unforgiving environment. And it needs to ramp-up today so that we have credible combined naval forces operating in the Arctic to ensure the ability to deter competitors and rapidly respond to crises in the region.
• Let me tell you, I very recently put my money where my mouth is. In March, several Senior Naval Leaders to include the Secretary of the Navy with Congressional Representatives and took a small plane out of Dead-Horse Alaska to the Submarine Forces’ ICE CAMP WHALE at the North Pole, where the wind-chill was in the negative 40s.
• ICE CAMP is designed to meet U-S national security objectives, as outlined in the Department of Defense and Department of Navy’s Arctic strategy, to maintain an enhanced Arctic presence with the first iteration of this biennial event taking place in 1946.
• ICE CAMP provides the necessary training to maintain a working knowledge of a constantly evolving region where navigating, communicating, and maneuvering in an Arctic setting in which the acoustics, sea life, salinity, and ice keels present a very challenging maritime environment.
• The participating submarines made multiple Arctic transits and surfacings, conducted operations at ICE CAMP, practiced extended operations under the ice, and operated in the high latitude regions of the North Pole that the Navy calls “POLEX.”
• Special Operations personnel operated close by as part of ARCTIC EDGE 2024 and will conduct interoperability training with a surfaced submarine.
• As Director McClure says:
  • "We still want to preserve the Arctic as a secure and stable region where the homeland is defended, and our vital interests are safeguarded."
• As we all know, history always demonstrates that peace comes through strength. ICE CAMP and other Joint and International exercises will help sustain our Navy’s continued proficiency in the Arctic while Maintaining an Enhanced Presence.

 

• As I said before, and it remains true, we must continue to include and grow our network of Allies and Partners in these operations. ICE CAMP was composed of units and support from Canada, Japan, Norway, United Kingdom and research organizations like the University of Alaska, DARPA, M-I-T Lincoln Labs, but we have plenty of room for others.
• The next Level of Effort follows logically that if we can partner and train with our network of Allies, we can entice, build, and Strengthen Cooperative Partnerships with other likeminded nations.
• We have something that China and Russia don’t have – far beyond a ‘no-limits relationship – we have a network of Allies and Partners with longstanding, strong relationships built on defending our common interest and defeating adversity time and time again. An alliance that is stronger and more unified than I have ever seen in my many decades in uniform.
• An opening Arctic brings the United States closer to our northern neighbors to provide mutual assistance in times of need, while also enabling like-minded nations to defend our homeland, deter aggression and coercion, and protect the ever-expanding Sea Lines of Communication.
• Since I assumed my role at Fleet Forces Command, I have hosted great friends and allies like VADM Topshee, Chief of the Royal Canadian Navy and responsible for overseeing the security of a massive Arctic coastline. He also joined me in ICE CAMP to demonstrate our strength in numbers. In actuality, I was just returning the favor. In 2023, he hosted some of our world-class Arleigh Burke Destroyers as part of Operation Nanook, which tested U-S, Canadian, French and Danish warships in the North Atlantic and north of the Arctic Circle. These exercises and partnerships are a strategic center of gravity.
• Mutually beneficial alliances and partnerships are foundational to this regional footprint and will fortify our needed relationships through shared visions, common goals, and mutually beneficial national interests.
• Allied and partner naval forces must jointly assess threats, share a common operational picture, define roles and missions, deepen defense industrial cooperation, and develop and exercise new concepts of operations for the Arctic Region.
• That not only means integrated, but interoperable, able to move, communicate, and if needed, shoot and sustain. Any coalition Commander should have confidence their platform operating within a Joint Task Force is fully integrated and ready for any tasking.
• I have mentioned the nature of our joint and international exercises, but while we train together we must build interoperability and mutual all-domain situational awareness as well. We must seek new and innovative approaches to connect people and information to help us avoid tactical and strategic surprise – keeping everyone on the same page.
• As General Guillot said in his 2024 Congressional testimony, “Investments in capabilities such as Over-the-Horizon Radar (OTHR) and the Integrated

Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS) will significantly enhance domain awareness in the air and maritime domains while limiting competitors’ ability to approach [from the North] undetected.”

• As the General envisioned, the threat product lines that the Over the Horizon RADAR or I-U-S-S produce must be part of a larger intelligence sharing network by NATO’s Arctic Council members to feed our shared common operating picture.
• These efforts will ensure our ability to compete with the P-R-C and Russia for years to come while clearly signaling a lasting commitment to a robust, modern, and effective defense of the ever-opening international Blue Arctic commons.
• I mentioned that ICE CAMP partners with industry and research teams, but those were mostly U-S organizations. We need partners to join us to continue modernizing command and control systems to provide faster, better-informed decision-making tools, and continuing collaborative research, development, and innovation.
• It is crucial for us to be able to understand and predict the physical environment from sea floor to space, today and for decades to come. This essential mission advantage ensures the safety of personnel, equipment effectiveness, and informs future force requirements.
• It is critically important to get this right. But we cannot use hope as a strategy, we must decide and take actions today to define and fund those future requirements.

 

• Therefore, the final L-O-E continues the logic train that occurs when we couple Enhanced Presence with Strengthened Cooperative Partnerships; specifically, we must also prioritize the financial investments to Build a More Capable Arctic Maritime Force.
• Following the end of the Cold War, the Navy-Marine Corps’ capabilities and operational expertise in the Arctic were not sustained at the necessary levels. Though we routinely patrol on, above, and certainly below Arctic waters, the maritime services must be prepared and postured to meet the demands of an increasingly accessible Arctic operating environment.
• First, we must invest in key capabilities that enable naval forces to maintain enhanced presence and partnerships. That includes the necessary cold weather-capable designs, forecasting models, sensors, high latitude communications, navigation systems, and weapons that all world-class maritime organizations need.
• However, like the investments made by Alaska into Nome, the infrastructure to support sustained and high-end military operations has to be improved and more robust. This includes port facilities, airfields, and shore infrastructure – across the Arctic it is critical for naval forces to project power. To maintain our operational advantage in a Blue Arctic, we must explore opportunities to reduce transit times, preserve mobility, and meet logistical demands of naval forces operating throughout the Arctic Region, including more robust personnel recovery options.
• We cannot rely solely on nuclear powered submarines, operating for 90+ days with the only limitation being our ability to store more food – our Surface Ships are an important part of the total force package for deterrence and defense. They need to get gas and supplies somewhere. They also need to be able to communicate back home to keep our national leaders informed.
• Though I have been talking for almost half hour and I promise to start wrapping my remarks, I can assure you that we are all-in here and open to collaboration with partners to improve our understanding of the Arctic operating environment to enable the Joint Force to effectively monitor and respond to threats in the Arctic in the future.
• Therefore, we have to put our money where our mouth is – through our investment and prioritization strategies including Acquisition Programs and Industrial innovation and capacity.
• We must be specific and transparent with our needs and hound our resource sponsors until we have what we need to remain world-class in this region of the world. I fear the points I have made today often sit under the radar of many national leaders. We can’t afford a 9/11 event to wake us up to the importance of the Arctic, five or ten years from now – Russia will have already set the theater.
• Simply said, we must have capabilities that will affordably, and persistently enhance domain awareness with the Joint Force, U-S interagency and intelligence communities, as well as with NATO and other key allies and partners in the Arctic Region.

 

• As I bring my remarks to an end, I will offer that we can get after many of these initiatives today. The security and stability of this region will one-day affect every American and every nation around the globe and again, I’m really happy to be here to discuss our concerted effort to underscore our focus in the Arctic.
• Without question, you can be sure that the United States Sailors, Marines and Coastguardsmen will be Ready to Answer the Call!
• Thank you for your time, I look forward to getting after it – together. Thank you.