Russia’s quieter new-generation nuclear-powered submarines are pressuring NATO’s northern defenses as the alliance races to secure Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America, a former NATO commander warned, citing President Vladimir Putin’s emerging "new super weapons and super capabilities" amassing in the region.The rising challenge, he said, also includes Russia’s heavily militarized Kola Peninsula, where Moscow has expanded military infrastructure, including airfields and ports, as it seeks to strengthen its position along the Northern Sea Route, as well as the waters leading to the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom Gap, known as the GIUK Gap.NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum highlighted Sept.2 that an expanding Russian submarine threat in the region was "serious.""Something is moving beneath the surface," NATO Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum posted on X.ARCTIC POWER PLAY GIVES TOP US ADVERSARY NEW OPENING WITH RUSSIA AS US STAKES GROWRussian personnel walk on the gangway to Russian Navy submarine RFS Petropavlosvsk- Kamchatskiy which is currently on a port visit at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, March 31, 2026 (Tatan Syuflana/AP Photo)"Russia is expanding and modernising its submarine force, with the Kola Peninsula remaining a key hub for the Northern Fleet.
Among them: new-generation nuclear-powered SSGNs, bringing serious long-range strike and sea-denial capabilities into the High North," NATO Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum said."They may be invisible beneath the waves.But not for us.
We see them, we watch the developments closely and yes, we take these developments seriously," the Joint Force Command added.The combination of quieter nuclear submarines and Russia's growing military infrastructure across its Arctic coastline means NATO is confronting an increasingly difficult undersea surveillance challenge, retired Gen.Philip Breedlove told Fox News Digital."Submarines are one of the toughest threat...