If we’re serious about defense in the Arctic, we should take advantage of our strategic location.
In this image released by the Department of Defense, U.S. fighter jets intercept a Russian military aircraft operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone on July 24, 2024.
What’s going on? There have been numerous flights along Alaska’s coasts in the last two weeks with as many as four Russian bombers in one day. There were Russian naval surface ships and even two submarines detected in the Chukchi Sea. The most recent aerial incursion had a Russian interceptor fly within feet of one or our F-16s.Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin, is embroiled in his brutal, wasteful war in Ukraine. We’re helping Ukraine defend against Putin’s invasion.
Back in the day, before satellites, the Alaska Army National Guard’s scout battalions in western Alaska villages were important. When people were out hunting, they kept an eye on things. For example, in the 1960s, local scouts on Saint Lawrence Island found evidence that unknown people had come ashore — no doubt a Soviet practice reconnaissance.
We need to be doing more. There’s still no permanent U.S. naval presence in the North Pacific, Bering Sea or the Arctic. As for icebreakers, this is an old story. We have comparatively little capability in the Arctic. One operating Coast Guard vessel, the Healy, is really designed for support of research. A second ship soon to be available is a leased commercial oil-support vessel with some icebreaking capabilities.
There’s also a newly advanced missile radar at Clear in the Interior, and at Shemya in the Aleutians, along with the missile defense interceptors at Fort Greely, southeast of Fairbanks.
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