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Joint Russian and Chinese warplanes and warships enter US Arctic air defense zone (ADIZ) near Alaska several times in recent months, Sen. Dan Sullivan said in an interview with Fox News Digital, warning that this operation is equal to the corresponding pressure to protect North America.
Sullivan, R-Alaska, said the data compiled by his office shows mostly air penetration — and sometimes joint patrols — with several naval and “research” ships operating inside the ADIZ, a protective zone where aircraft must declare themselves but are not automatically denied access.
“They were scouting,” Sullivan said, arguing that the missions amounted to strategic surveillance and accelerated efforts to reopen the Navy’s Adak base and expand Arctic infrastructure.
Sullivan led a Senate Commerce subcommittee last month that approved $25 billion in new funding for the Coast Guard, including $4.5 billion for infrastructure improvements such as a deep-water port in Nome — one of the closest US cities to Russia — and other Arctic icebreakers. The US currently operates two icebreakers, one of which is inactive, compared to Russia’s reported 54.
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Among the projects is a plan to reopen a military base on Adak Island at the end of the Aleutian chain, about 6,000 miles from Washington but on Russia’s doorstep.
Adak played an important role during World War II, when Japanese forces invaded parts of the Aleutians, and later served as a Cold War military force monitoring Soviet activity in the North Pacific.
“We have the Adak Navy Base that is reopening. We have this port of Nome that is yet to be built. [where] all important Navy or Coast Guard equipment except an aircraft carrier can go in, and the icebreaker Storis is sent home through Juneau. There’s a lot going on,” Sullivan said. “We’re continuing to push it, and you know what I like to do with all military operations is push push push push.”
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Adak also hosts a 20-million-gallon fuel storage facility, Sullivan said, adding that renovating the facility would give U.S. destroyers and other ships a valuable way to burn off the junk.
Sullivan said the attack should affect all Americans, dismissing any suggestion that the ships were doing good research or trying to “save the whales.”
“They were there inspecting us and looking at the submarine routes, looking at the cables,” he said, pointing to the trans-Pacific transmission lines that pass through Alaska. “That’s really a plan.”
He added that a joint Russian-Chinese military operation in the US ADIZ – along with cruise missiles and armored personnel carriers – is “unprecedented” on American territory.
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin meet in Kazan, Russia. (Reuters/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
In the event of an attack, US planes are dispatched from bases as far as 1,000 miles away, including Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, a framework similar to sending New York City responders to fires in Chicago.
The port of Nome, the Adak base and other new infrastructure will reduce response times, increase defense presence and keep America safe, he said.
“We are part of the American Arctic, but we are America. And when our enemies press against us, we need to respond with strength and infrastructure and capabilities. Our military does it. We build that with the Coast Guard, the Air Force, and the Army,” he said.
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Anchorage and the Chugach Range. (Zihao Chen/Getty Images)
A recent report from the Wall Street Journal describing a Chinese ship that passed through the Bering Strait, smashed the ice on Russia’s Arctic coast before stopping in Poland, as another proof of Beijing’s expansion in the Arctic.
Sullivan cited the merchant ship wreck as a prime example of why action is needed now to strengthen America’s Arctic.
USAF Gen. Alexus Grynkewich – NATO’s top military officer – told the Wall Street Journal that the alliance sees China “getting aggressive” across the Arctic.
“It’s our territory, right? And we just need to be ready to protect it and have equipment that can monitor whether that’s a merchant ship or a spy ship,” Sullivan added.
“The good news is in the Trump administration, with the Budget Reconciliation Bill, the Act to Reduce Working Families, and you’ve seen the president before, and he wants a maximum number of our military about $ 1.5 trillion, which sends a message to China, Russia and all our enemies that we will not allow access to our airspace and the US war happens every time without a US war.”
Sullivan said another development is increasing capacity at Point Barrow – “the top in North America” - which, along with Adak, will allow the US to intercept bad aircraft more quickly.
A map provided by Getty Images shows various Arctic military bases. (Getty Images)
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Power is also shaping global geopolitics, he said, as NATO transitions to a “powerful Arctic alliance” – with allies Finland, Sweden and Norway alike recognizing these threats. Finland and Sweden have recently joined NATO, he noted, which has been key in this situation.
If you look at the world from above – rather than directly – it puts the US, Canada and Scandinavia directly across from Russia and, increasingly, China, which has declared itself the “near-Arctic power.”
Fox News Digital’s Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.
