OAN Staff James Meyers
11:23 AM – Wednesday, September 18, 2024
The U.S. military has moved almost 130 soldiers and mobile rocket launchers to a desolate island in the Aleutian chain of western Alaska amid a recent increase in Russian military planes and vessels approaching American land.
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Eight Russian military planes and four naval vessels, including two submarines, have come close to Alaska in the past week as Russia and China conducted joint military drills. None of the planes breached U.S. airspace and a Pentagon spokesperson said on Tuesday that there was no cause for alarm.
“It’s not the first time that we’ve seen the Russians and the Chinese flying, you know, in the vicinity, and that’s something that we obviously closely monitor, and it’s also something that we’re prepared to respond to,” Pentagon spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder said at a news conference.
Meanwhile, Russian state media said more than 15 warships in the region practiced missile launches, among other activities.
The latest activity comes after a July incident in which the U.S. F-16s and Canadian CF-18s were deployed to intercept two Chinese and two Russian bombers off Alaska.
Major General Joseph Hilbert, commander of the 11th Airborne based out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) in Anchorage, said that the U.S. response ensured Army capabilities.
“[It] is critical to our nation’s defense and the preservation of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Hilbert said. “Our ability to deploy combat-credible forces quickly and effectively to any location, no matter how remote, is critical to supporting the nation and our strong relationships with allies and partner nations.”
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has claimed that the number of such incursions has changed over the years. The normal average is six to seven intercepts per year. In 2023, 26 Russian planes came into the Alaskan zone, and there have been 25 so far this year.
On Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard said that its homeland security vessel, the 418-foot Stratton, was on routine patrol in the Chukchi Sea when it tracked four Russian Federation Navy vessels estimated 60 miles northwest of Point Hope, Alaska.
However, Major General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon spokesperson, said the recent spike is “something that we’ll continue to keep an eye on, but doesn’t pose a threat from our perspective.”
“In the past two years, we’ve seen joint Russian-Chinese air and naval exercises off our shores and a Chinese spy balloon floating over our communities,” Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska.) said in a statement Tuesday. “These escalating incidents demonstrate the critical role the Arctic plays in great power competition between the U.S., Russia, and China.”
Additionally, Sullivan said the U.S. Navy should reopen its shuttered base at Adak, located in the Aluetians. Meanwhile, Naval Air Facility Adak was closed in 1997.
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