US Eyes Aleutian Military Revival As Russia, China Expand Operations Near Alaska

In October 2024, the US Coast Guard spotted two Chinese maritime enforcement vessels operating alongside a pair of Russian border patrol boats as they transited the Bering Sea, just kilometers from Alaskan waters.

It was the third consecutive year that a joint Russian-Chinese military convoy sailed through the strategic waterway. A year earlier, the two nations staged joint naval exercises in the region with 11 ships -- a clear signal of their growing military cooperation near US territory.

The October transit, which China said continued through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean, came less than three months after the first joint flight of Chinese and Russian strategic bombers over the Bering Sea.

The uptick in Russian and Chinese activity near Alaska -- home to America’s largest fleet of advanced fighter jets and a cornerstone of its missile defense architecture --is fueling calls to reestablish Cold War-era military infrastructure on the Aleutian Islands.

Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 10 that he supports reopening the shuttered naval facility on Adak Island and upgrading Eareckson Air Station on Shemya, the westernmost outpost of the chain.

Facilities on Adak and Shemya would give the United States “time and distance on any force capability that is looking to penetrate” American waters or airspace, Paparo said. Reactivating Adak would allow the United States to increase maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft (MPRA) coverage in the region by a factor of 10, he told lawmakers.

A Gateway To The Arctic

The Aleutian chain, made up of 14 large volcanic islands and 55 smaller ones, stretches more than 1,600 kilometers from the Alaskan mainland toward Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The islands sit astride the great circle routes, the shortest paths between Asia and North America, and serve as a gateway to both the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea.

Kamchatka -- 800 kilometers west of Shemya -- is home to Russia’s Pacific submarine fleet and squadrons of long-range fighters. Paparo described Russia’s Pacific Fleet as a “growth enterprise” that now operates “frequently” along the great circle routes.

General Gregory Guillot, commander of the US Northern Command, testified in February before a Senate committee that reviving Adak could provide important “maritime and air access.”

The Pentagon is currently evaluating future uses for Adak, which features a deep-water port with three piers, two 7,000-foot (2,100-meter) runways, multiple hangars, de-icing platforms, and one of the largest bulk fuel storage facilities in the United States.

During the Cold War, Adak served as the primary anti-submarine warfare base in the Pacific, with P-3 Orions regularly patrolling the surrounding waters. The island also stored B57 nuclear depth bombs designed to detonate underwater and destroy enemy submarines.

At its peak, the island was home to 6,000 military personnel and their families. The base was officially closed in 1997. Today, fewer than 200 people live on the island. Alaska Airlines operates a single commercial route to Adak using Boeing 737s.

Eareckson Air Station on Shemya hosts a 10,000-foot (3,000-meter) runway and hangars. Shemya is also home to the Cobra Dane radar system -- an advanced sensor used to track ballistic missile launches and satellites. The air station also serves as an emergency diversion airport for civilian flights crossing the North Pacific.

'A Real Challenge'

US forces in September carried out an exercise on Shemya in response to the joint Russia-China bomber flight.

“Every time a state vessel or aircraft enters the area, it’s collecting information,” said Troy Bouffard, an Arctic security expert at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “The only way to respond is to intercept and push them out.”

“This is a real challenge,” he added. “And places like Adak provide outstanding positions to base the assets needed to meet it.”

Adak, which will be part of Indo-Pacific Command's Northern Edge exercise in August, could host P-8A Poseidon aircraft -- America’s most advanced maritime patrol aircraft and the successor to the P-3. Based on the Boeing 737 airframe, the P-8 is designed to detect and destroy both surface ships and submarines.

The P-8 plays a central role in US and allied anti-submarine warfare. The US resumed P-8 flights from its airbase at Keflavik, Iceland, in 2018 amid renewed Russian activity near the GIUK Gap, a key maritime chokepoint into the Atlantic.

Allies including Canada, Germany, and Norway have announced plans to purchase the aircraft to replace their P-3s. Norway reversed plans to close an Arctic air station after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and will now use it for maritime drone flights that complement the P-8s.

Shortest Missile Flight Path To The US

Russia’s Pacific Fleet is expected to grow to 45 modernized warships by the early 2030s, including 19 submarines. Some of its newest vessels are armed with Zircon hypersonic missiles, which can reach speeds over Mach 5 and strike targets hundreds of kilometers away.

Meanwhile, China is expanding the world’s largest navy by hull count. The Congressional Research Service estimates its fleet could grow from 370 to 435 ships by 2030. Intelligence reports suggest Russia is helping China reduce the acoustic signatures of its submarines -- critical to making them harder for US forces to track.

Experts warn that, if Chinese nuclear-armed submarines reach the Arctic, it would significantly enhance Beijing’s second-strike capability against the United States. The shortest missile flight path to the continental US is over the Arctic.

Russia’s air presence in the Bering and Arctic regions is also growing. A senior Alaskan commander told reporters in 2021 that US intercepts of Russian aircraft near or inside the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone had reached a post-Soviet high.

The spike coincides with Moscow’s rapid expansion and renovation of dozens of Arctic military installations, including airfields and radar sites.

In the event of a reopening, the United States is not expected to station many military personnel on the islands, which are renowned for their high winds, dense fog, persistent overcast skies, and freezing temperatures. A 1937 Naval War College assessment described them as having “some of the worst weather in the world.”

Imperial Japan captured two of the islands in June 1942, marking only the second time in US history that its territory had been seized by a foreign adversary. Though US forces recaptured the islands, the 14-month Aleutian Campaign cost 225 American aircraft, most lost to the region’s extreme weather.