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China To Deploy ‘Listening Devices’ In The Arctic Ocean To Exert Dominance, Track US, Rival Submarines

China has unequivocally stated its intentions to become a “polar great power” by 2030.

Despite being 900 miles away from the Arctic circle, Beijing has never shied away from asserting itself as a “near Arctic state,” and now it is gearing towards deploying a network of listening devices in the Arctic Ocean that would very well herald the militarization of the top of the world.

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The Arctic could see its first ice-free summer by 2030 if current projections hold. And this has made countries interested in the region increase the pace of their commercial, scientific, and military endeavors.

A Hong Kong-based news organization South China Morning Post carried out the news about China seeking to deploy acoustic devices in the Arctic after successfully testing and evaluating its underwater listening devices.

The report quotes a study published in the Chinese Journal of Polar Research that says: “The acoustic information collected by the planned large-scale listening network could be used in a wide range of applications, including “subglacial communication, navigation and positioning, target detection and the reconstruction of marine environmental parameters.”

“They are for scientific purposes, but all such things have a dual purpose,” an Indian expert of the Arctic region told the EurAsian Times.

However, observers of the Arctic region feel that acoustics devices play an important role in understanding climate change in the Arctic as the oceanographic data from the Arctic Ocean, especially from the deep ocean, are scarce. But the data can also be used to track the movement of submarines and understand the marine ecosystem to chart new routes – both under and over the surface.

The Polar Research Institute of China is conducting the research: “The system carried several instruments, but the most important was a vector hydrophone with multiple sensors arranged in different orientations to measure both the pressure and particle motion of sound waves.”




Chinese Polar Missions/Representational Image
Chinese Polar Missions/Representational Image

The world above 66 degrees latitude has remained intractable for most human existence, impeding large-scale commerce. Explorers, speculators, and scientists long believed a trove of rich resources and shipping routes lay hidden beneath the Arctic’s ice and snow. But deadly cold, debilitating darkness and enormous distances have hampered any exploitation of the resources. However, the unknown depths of the Arctic are soon being charted, making their navigation a possibility sooner than later.

The institute asserts that since the region is sensitive to climate change, sound pressure data can be used to track whales, seals, and other sound-emitting sources. The horizontal and vertical vibration of water particles can help scientists understand marine conditions such as currents, waves, and the sea floor.

The Shanghai-based institute is a central government agency that plans and coordinates China’s polar activities.

Chinese scientists and engineers installed the “polar subglacial shallow surface acoustic monitoring buoy system” on a chunk of floating ice in a remote area of the Arctic Ocean on August 9, 2021.

During the test, the institute used an American communication satellite service. China’s polar listening network would likely shift to Chinese BeiDou satellites for communication.

Militarization Of The Top Of The World

Countries across the globe are scrambling to cement their foothold in the polar region as global warming is rapidly melting polar ice caps, drastically transforming the environment. Mutual distrust is pushing major world powers to enhance their civil and military engagements in the Arctic.

“It is a complex situation. Militarization has increased, but it is by both sides, the West and Russia.”

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