Task Force Climate Change
The U.S. Navy initiate a four years programme to figure out what it will take for Arctic fleet operations when the climate changes make the ice disappear.
As the ice melts on the top of the world, the U.S. Navy will have to learn how to operate surface vessels in these uncharted waters. So far, only submarines have regularly been sailing under the icecap.
Now, the Navy, the coast guard and other U.S. government organizations will work out a plan, called Arctic Roadmap, which will give guidelines on what vessels, training, equipment, rules and schedules they will need for a whole new operating area, reports Navy Times.
-As the ice melts back, it is an ocean and we as the United States Navy work in every ocean in the world, Rear Adm. Dave Titley, oceanographer and navigator of the Navy, said interviewed by Navy Times.
-When the ice really starts melting back and we really have to be up there, he said, - The officers and senior enlisted of that Navy, if we do our jobs right, will have experience working in that environment.
Last week, BarentsObserver wrote that the US Navy’s submarine USS Texas broke through the ice in the vicinity of the North Pole in mid-October. The brand new USS Texas is the first of the Virginia-class attack-submarines in the US Navy to conduct operations in the Arctic.
According to Navy Times, over the next four years, Task Force Climate Change, under the oceanographer’s office, should have figured out what it will take for Arctic fleet operations, including communications and logistics, down to how well forecasters can tell a ship captain whether he should expect ice ahead.
