?With hurricanes and presidential politics occupying most of the U.S. TV news, few Americans noticed or even paid attention to Operation Atlantic, an effort that was under way in mid-September.


At an estimated cost of $12.3 million, Brazil’s armed forces took part in a series of military exercises that included 20 surface vessels, several conventional submarines, about 9,000 ground troops and up to 50 aircraft.


In staging this faux war, the Brazilians have joined Canada and Russia in publicly displaying military might they say will be used to defend offshore oil and gas resources. The Brazilians are taking their efforts one step further, however. They are in the process of acquiring the technology from France to build a nuclear-powered submarine.


Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim recently told his country’s lawmakers that Brazil would use its nuclear attack submarine to defend its natural resources. He also told lawmakers the nation is adding up to 50 warships to its fleet. Jobim said the nation is filing a claim with the United Nations to extend its territorial waters from the recognized 250-mile zone to 350 miles.

Brazil will spend $160 million for the development of the nuclear submarine and by 2010, expects to spend an estimated $3.5 billion to upgrade its military. The submarine will be designed along the lines of the Scorpen-class and could join the fleet as early as 2020.
Brazil would be the first nation in South America to have a nuclear-powered warship.


To the north, the Canadians have started a multibillion-dollar building plan for a Northern Fleet to patrol the Northwest Passage. Russia recently reported it would be staging some of the largest wargames its nation has held since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Staged in the Arctic region, the games have one purpose—to seize and hold the energy-rich frontier region.


The Brazilians’ eyes are on development of a field discovered by Petrobras that could hold as much as 5- to 8 billion barrels of oil. If even the most conservative estimates are correct, this could be one of the largest energy discoveries in the past 20 years.


For its part, Canada’s C$7.3-billion program is funding the construction of a fleet of eight Arctic-class warships to patrol what is expected to soon be an ice-free Northwest Passage.

Free from the heavy pack ice that has been there since recorded history, an ice-free Northwest Passage would mean a shortcut from the Pacific to Europe and the East Coast of the U.S., and vice versa. For companies leasing tankers and LNG carriers, that could mean savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars on each trip. Also, larger ships would not have to sail around the Horn of Africa or the tip of South America.

The Canadians, though, under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have taken a strong nationalist approach to the passage, declaring it an internal waterway. The U.S. and several European Union nations have said the passage should be declared an international waterway, allowing any nation to use it.


“Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sover­eignty over the Arctic,” Harper has said. “Either we use it or we lose it. And make no mistake about it—this government intends to use it.”


The Canadians are also looking at the potential for new oil and gas fields that they are now claiming under the Arctic Ocean.


Canada has awarded the contract for six to eight ice-capable Arctic-class offshore patrol ships to BMT Fleet Technology Ltd., in Kanata, Ontario. BMT was awarded the engineering, logistics and management-support portion of the project.'


The Russians, too, are ramping up military efforts.


In a recent interview in the official Russian Army daily newspaper Red Star, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Shamanov announced a large-scale military exercise involving naval, army and air force units in Siberia to be held either by year-end or shortly after the start of the new year. The general told the newspaper the exercise is in direct response to criticism Russia received after making a claim to a large part of the Arctic Ocean by placing a small flag on the seabed.


“After the reaction of a certain number of heads of state to Russia’s territorial claims to the continental plateau of the Arctic, the training division has immediately set out (training) plans for troops that could be engaged in Arctic combat missions,” Shamanov said. “We have a number of highly professional military units in the Leningrad, Siberian and Far Eastern military districts, which are specifically trained for combat in Arctic regions.”


In addition to the ground troops, he mentioned the use of the Northern Fleet’s submarines.


The U.S. and U.K. regularly conduct exercises in protecting offshore rigs, platforms and energy fields. The British Special Air Service—SAS—routinely takes part in exercises in the North Sea to retake platforms, as does the U.S. Delta Force. Neither country, however, reports it.

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