Increasing Coast Guard Arctic Flights

An increase in Coast Guard Arctic flights might not be a big story but check out the little gem in the middle of this piece:

The U.S. Coast Guard says it's stepped up surveillance flights to the Arctic.

It plans to complete one every two weeks to familiarize crews with the terrain.

A flight last week, called the Arctic Domain Awareness, also provided training for crew on the C-130 cargo plane.

Rear Adm. Gene Brooks, commander of the 17th Coast Guard District, said the Guard needs to know about the lay of the land and what other nations might be doing in the Arctic.

During one of the flights, which began last fall, Brooks said the Coast Guard was surprised to come upon Chinese research vessels.

Yeah, I'd keep an eye out for that...wonder what oil field they were researching? And what else they were looking into...