Leveraging the Joint Capacity of Arctic Allies and Industry Partners

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Executive Summary

As great-power competition extends to the Arctic, the United States and its allies will need a strengthened focus on and investment in regional security and North American continental defense to close situational awareness and capability gaps. Washington’s allies have assets to help support US national security interests, enhance deterrence, and make critical contributions to Arctic operations and capability development. Forging deep partnerships, building up allied and US capabilities, and reforming procurement regulations to allow greater integration with
trusted international and industry partners offers the United States and its partners cost-effective solutions to maintain their competitive technological edge and address security gaps at the speed of relevance while meeting sensitive security standards.

This report assesses best practices and lessons learned from recently launched bilateral, trilateral, and minilateral initiatives that aim to enhance Arctic maritime and space domain awareness, presence, and communications through joint defense industrial development and international partnerships. While discussing a variety of initiatives, it focuses on the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM) between the United States and Norway, and the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or ICE Pact, between the United States, Canada, and Finland. It assesses both initiatives’ success and potential in achieving their core focus and their capacity to serve as vehicles to reform the acquisition system and further boost the US industrial base. It also discusses the initiatives’ potential to be scaled up to include other like-minded partners, including via NATO, or serve as models for future capability initiatives.

To develop and procure urgently needed capabilities and systems in support of Arctic domain awareness and operations, the United States should use the high-level political focus on the Arctic theater and associated initiatives that can help drive progress to:

• foster a whole-of-government approach to devote resources to this effort and strengthen the public-private ecosystem.
  • Political leadership in the executive and legislative branches can help overcome technical and legal obstacles and send necessary demand signals to industry. High-level political attention is especially critical for advancing strategic priority areas that have suffered from
    underinvestment, including the specific need for icebreakers and Arctic capabilities more broadly.
  • At a time when adversaries are deepening military-civil fusion to advance dual-use capabilities, the United States and its allies should strive to maximize the potential of their commercial industries and minimize government or national compartmentalization and
    public-private silos.
  • The United States should also take a more holistic approach to deeply interconnected global threats and theaters, and prioritize integrated planning across USNORTHCOM, USEUCOM, and USINDOPACOM to address growing Russia-China alignment in the Arctic.
• find flexible approaches to integrate international and commercial partners into the defense acquisition system. This should include:
  • addressing persisting technical and legal obstacles, such as export controls, procurement rules, and visa regimes that limit workforce exchange and development.
  • prioritizing compatibility when designing new capabilities. Where possible, the United States and its international partners should minimize optional customization of assets that prolongs production timelines. Using cost-effective, off-the-shelf solutions can help plug
    urgent capability gaps in some cases;
  • combining short-term fixes, including presidential waivers, with reform to facilitate systemic shifts required to revive niche national-security priority industries and drive innovation.
• optimize information sharing and interoperability through a more nuanced approach to classification levels and information sharing by:
  • continuing and deepening forums that allow international and industry partners to gather regularly, identify shared interests and challenges, and facilitate cross-sector innovation;
  • continuing to invite key international and commercial partners to exercises and training,
    including in the Arctic and in the space domain, to optimize interoperability, identify operational obstacles and shortfalls, and test new technologies and capabilities;
  • addressing cultural issues that impede innovation and opportunities for collaboration in a risk-averse security community;
  • prioritizing compatibility of classified conferencing and messaging networks, satellite networks, and ground infrastructure. Developing scalable solutions that can be offered to international partners will also allow commercial providers to remain competitive.