Command: Modern Operations Command:MO LIVE - Pole Positions

Command: Modern Operations Command:MO LIVE - Pole Positions is a scenario set in the Arctic in summer 2017. Russia is in the fourth year of a 15-year project to install SHELF, a nuclear-powered underwater Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) intended to detect submarines. The US is concerned that the system could limit its options for positioning ballistic missile submarines beneath the polar ice.

The Arctic situation

Receding polar ice has increased access to Arctic waters, enabling expanded oil and gas exploration and extraction, as well as mineral extraction in northern Russia, Canada, Greenland and Alaska. Nuclear submarines also use the region to travel between oceans beneath the ice and to position ballistic missile submarines, which both the US and Russia routinely station there as a place to hide these strategic assets.

Neither country wants its Arctic operations to become public knowledge. Russia has not made SHELF fully operational, while the US has other concerns to manage. Operations take place under limited plausible deniability: few can detect them, and fewer still are willing to reveal what they have found.

Environmental activity

The Arctic is a fragile ecosystem, and the receding icepack is evidence of global warming. Increased resource exploration also raises the risk of toxic chemicals entering waters where they take longer to break down than in warmer regions. Seventeen whale species inhabit the Arctic in summer: Humpback and Grey whales migrate there to give birth, while Narwhal, Beluga and Bowhead whales live there year-round.

Development in the north has drawn scrutiny from government-sponsored agencies such as the Arctic Council, as well as groups including Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd. A European-based campaign is also seeking to expose nuclear activity in the Arctic. This creates difficulties for Russia as it negotiates with European countries to benefit from its new economic position and opportunities related to Brexit. The US adds its voice to the protest, criticizing Russia's plans for extensive use of undersea nuclear power in Arctic development while ignoring its own submarines' use of the region. Biological and environmental group activity can affect operations.

US and Russian objectives

The USN is authorized to conduct a pre-emptive operation to destabilize Russian construction and halt the SHELF project. The operation must not be detected, so only Special Forces and submarine forces are available, and it must be carried out without the public or Russia discovering who is responsible.

Russia suspects that something is underway. Mixed messages from Washington have not obscured the increase in US naval activity in the Arctic. Moscow's priority is to begin the summer construction program while keeping it as secret as possible.

Submarine forces

The scenario includes these assets:

• US: SSGN 726 USS Ohio, Echo Voyager (submersible), SSN 21 USS Seawolf, SSN 23 USS Jimmy Carter, SSN 700 USS Dallas, SSN 782 USS Mississippi and SSN 786 USS Illinois.
• Russia: BS-64 RFS Podmoskovye (Delta IV Stretch), Losharik (Submersible), BS-136 RFS Orenburg (Delta III Stretch), Losharik (Submersible), K-139 RFS Belgorod (Modified Oscar II), K-157 RFS Vepr (Akula II), K-295 RFS Samara (Akula II), K-329 RFS Severodvinsk (Severodvinsk) and K-371 RFS Pantera (Akula I).