Sailors aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton relay maritime domain awareness information to Green Berets assigned to 10th Special Forces Group on Wales, Alaska, during Operation Polar Dagger, Aug. 19, 2024. (Bryon Davidson/U.S. Army)
The U.S. Coast Guard recently encountered four Russian naval vessels in U.S. waters near Point Hope, Alaska, the service said Monday.
The crew of the cutter, Stratton, on a routine patrol in the Chukchi Sea on Sunday, spotted a Russian surface action group 57 miles northwest of the city, according to a news release.
The flotilla included two submarines, a frigate and a tugboat, the Coast Guard said.
The vessels moved southeast inside Russian territory before crossing into U.S. Arctic waters to avoid sea ice. The vessels transited about 30 miles into U.S. waters, a move permitted by international rules and customs, according to the Coast Guard.
“We are actively patrolling our maritime border in the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Chukchi Sea, with our largest and most capable cutters and aircraft, to protect U.S. sovereign interests, U.S. fish stocks, and to promote international maritime norms,” Rear Adm. Megan Dean, commander of Coast Guard District 17, said in the release.
The 17th District encompasses more than 3,853,500 square miles and over 47,300 miles of shoreline throughout Alaska and the Arctic.
“Coast Guard Cutter Stratton ensured there were no disruptions to U.S. interests,” Dean said.
The Stratton is a 418-foot Legend-class national security cutter homeported in Alameda, Calif. It is patrolling under Operation Frontier Sentinel to meet Russian and Chinese vessels operating in and around U.S. waters, according to the release.
The encounter is the latest in a series of recent incidents involving Russian forces approaching U.S. territory or that of its allies.
Two Russian IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft were tracked in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone on Saturday, according to North American Aerospace Defense Command.
The Russian aircraft flew into the zone where the U.S. expects international aircraft to identify themselves but remained outside U.S. and Canadian territorial airspace.
Elements of the U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division and the 1st and 3rd Multi Domain Task Forces deployed last week to Shemya Island in the Aleutians in response to recent Russian and Chinese air and sea probes.
Around 130 soldiers are on the nearly 3-mile-wide island 1,200 miles west of Anchorage as a “show of force” in response to the probes into the region, said Maj. Gen. Joseph Hilbert, commander of the 11th Airborne Division, which has its headquarters at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage.
“As the number of adversarial exercises increases around Alaska and throughout the region, including June’s joint Russian-Chinese bomber patrol, the operation to Shemya Island demonstrates the division’s ability to respond to events in the Indo-Pacific or across the globe, with a ready, lethal force within hours,” Hilbert said in a statement Friday.
The latest incident is intended to send a message to Americans, according to James Brown, an international affairs expert at Temple University’s Japan campus.
“The Russian Ministry of Defence is working exceptionally hard to convince the West that Russia remains a global military power,” he said by email Tuesday. “This is about prestige but also about deterrence. Via such shows of force, Moscow wants to deter the West from actions that it opposes.”
However, Washington won’t be too concerned, Brown added.
“If Russia carries out such activities near the US, it justifies the U.S. conduct of comparable activities near Russia,” he said.
