US sends soldiers to Alaska amid Russian military activity increase in the area

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The U.S. military has deployed more than 100 soldiers, along with mobile rocket launchers, to a deserted island in the Aleutian Islands in western Alaska, amid a recent increase in Russian military aircraft and ships approaching U.S. territory.

Eight Russian military aircraft and four naval vessels, including two submarines, have come close to Alaska in the past week, as Russia and China joint military exercises carried outNone of the planes violated U.S. airspace, and a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday there was no reason to panic.

“This is not the first time we’ve seen the Russians and the Chinese flying in the area, you know, and that’s something that we’re obviously watching very closely, and it’s something that we’re prepared to respond to,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a news conference Tuesday.

As part of a “force projection operation,” the military on Sept. 12 sent the soldiers to Shemya Island, about 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage, where the U.S. Air Force has an air base that dates back to World War II. The soldiers brought with them two High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.

US Senator Dan Sullivan, Republican of Alaska, also said that the US military has sent a guided missile destroyer and a coast guard ship to the western region of Alaska, while Russia and China began the “Ocean-24” military exercises in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans on September 10.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command said it had detected and tracked Russian military aircraft operating off the coast of Alaska over a four-day period. There were two aircraft on Sept. 11, Sept. 13, Sept. 14 and Sept. 15.

Sullivan called for a larger military presence in the Aleutians and urged the U.S. to respond forcefully to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“Over the past two years, we have seen joint Russian-Chinese air and naval exercises off our coast and a Chinese spy balloon floats “over our communities,” Sullivan said in a statement Tuesday. “These escalating incidents demonstrate the critical role the Arctic plays in the great power struggle between the U.S., Russia, and China.”

Sullivan said the U.S. Navy should reopen its closed base in Adak, located in the Aleutian Islands. Naval Air Facility Adak closed in 1997.

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Associated Press writers Tara Copp and Lolita Baldor contributed from Washington, D.C.