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 war in Ukraine — one of the ways he diverts attention is to start announcing new super weapons and super capabilities that NATO and the West can't contend with," Breedlove warned.
"Putin is creating a stir about a new class of submarines that he wants to deploy from what we call the bastion waters in the Far North," he said before stating that NATO would "have to adapt our measures and our ability to see and track them."
"We've taken excellent measures in the past."
Breedlove characterized the GIUK Gap as a critical gateway for Russian naval forces moving from their northern bases toward the Atlantic.
"All the Russian ships have to come out through the GIUK Gap to make it into the Atlantic," Breedlove said, warning that the seven other Arctic nations, including the United States, are concerned about what Russia is doing.
NATO has also been strengthening its northern posture amid the renewed Russian military activity and the growing strategic importance of the Arctic.
In February 2026, the alliance launched Arctic Sentry, a multidomain military initiative led by Joint Force Command Norfolk and designed to better coordinate allied land, air and maritime activity across the Arctic and High North.
NATO further strengthened its northern flank in June with Forward Land Forces Finland, a Swedish-led multinational force designed to bolster deterrence and defense along the alliance's northeastern flank, with Finland serving as the host nation, according to a release.
"The Arctic region has been a concern for some years now as ice in the area is receding in the north, and what that has done is created the Northern Passage that allows European trade to happen with Asia much faster," Breedlove said, stating that for most types of ships, the trips are up to 14 days quicker.
"This is a tremendous economic opportunity, but Russia sees this as an economic opportunity in that they want to control those northern waters.
Russia has been upgrading airfields, ports and radar systems along the Arctic coast as Moscow seeks greater control over the Northern Sea Route and its commercial traffic, Breedlove said.
The recent NATO buildup however, has drawn strong pushback from Moscow, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warning Aug. 30 that increased Western military activity risks destabilizing the Arctic region.
"Such military activity in the Far North poses a direct threat to Russia’s security," Lavrov wrote in a public essay.
"It also increases the risk of incidents that could trigger an armed confrontation with potentially disastrous consequences," he said, according to Reuters.