Chinese and Russian coast guard vessels traversing the eastern Bering Sea
The U.S. Coast Guard observed four vessels from the Russian Border Guard and Chinese Coast Guard conducting a joint patrol in the Bering Sea on Saturday. By Tuesday of this week, the ships were seen on a vessel tracking site traveling northwest of Nome offshore of Cape Rodney and headed toward Wales, well east of the border to Russian waters.
Vice Admiral Peter W. Gautier, Deputy Commandant for Operations with the U.S.Coast Guard happened to be in Nome on Wednesday. Admiral Gautier met with The Nome Nugget for an interview and when asked about the unusual sighting of Russian and Chinese coast guard vessels so close to the Seward Peninsula, he said that the U.S.Coast Guard was tracking the movements closely.
“I can understand how that produces anxiety as we are so close to those sorts of operations here,” Gautier said. “First of all, we are absolutely tracking these movements. We know where these vessels are at any given point in time. And that is something that is of very it's of considerable interest, not just here in Alaska, but also back in Washington, DC.”
The Coast Guard District 17, including all of Alaska, has an operation called Frontier Sentinel, and when Russian and Chinese state vessels are observed, Gautier said, the Coast Guard postures itself in a position to be able to meet that presence with presence from the United States Coast Guard.
The activities of Russian and Chinese vessels, he said, have been observed in the last four years. “This is a little bit later in the season than we typically see Russian and Chinese naval or Coast Guard activity up here,” Gautier said. “We have Coast Guard cutters operating in the area, and we make sure that that's the case so we can meet them where they are, just to let them know that we're paying attention.” Gautier stressed that these transits are considered to be in accordance with international law. “They're not violating any specific laws. But nevertheless, we think it's in our interest to be there to track and we also conduct overflights C-130 overflights.”
“It really is that the combination of situational awareness and understanding where Russian and Chinese vessels are operating at any given time, and it does tend to be seasonal,” Gautier said. “I'll acknowledge that we've seen more and in different locations in 2024 than previous years. But they're tracked, and we do make sure that we have the Coast Guard assets, cutters, aircraft, so that we can meet them physically in proximity when they're close to our maritime boundary line to make sure that we're asserting our sovereignty.”
The four Chinese and Russian ships were first observed by the Coast Guard on Saturday. While patrolling the maritime boundary between the United States and Russia on routine patrol in the Bering Sea, a HC-130J Super Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak observed two Russian Border Guard ships and two Chinese Coast Guard ships approximately 440 miles southwest of St. Lawrence Island.
The vessels were transiting in formation in a northeast direction, remaining approximately five miles inside the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone. This marked the northernmost location where Chinese Coast Guard vessels have been observed by the U.S. Coast Guard. Early this week, they were in the American Exclusive Economic Zone, or EEZ, sailing northward off the coastline of the Seward Peninsula. The exclusive economic zone is the zone where the U.S. and other coastal nations have jurisdiction over natural resources and transits are allowed.
“This recent activity demonstrates the increased interest in the Arctic by our strategic competitors,” said Rear Adm. Megan Dean, commander of the 17th Coast Guard District. “The demand for Coast Guard services across the region continues to grow, requiring continuous investment in our capabilities to meet our strategic competitors’ presence and fulfill our statutory missions across an expanding operational area.”
In a separate incident on September 23, a Russian SU-35 aircraft conducted a dangerous maneuver very close to an Alaska-based U.S. Air Force fighter during an intercept in Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone. North American Aerospace Defense Command released a video of an Air Force fighter jet filming a Russian aircraft when suddenly another fighter jet zoomed by dangerously close to the American fighter jet.
U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, a statement after NORAD released the video of the Russian Su-35 aircraft conducting a dangerous maneuver.
“The reckless and unprofessional maneuvers of Russian fighter pilots—within just a few feet of our Alaska-based fighters—in Alaska’s ADIZ on September 23 put the lives of our brave Airmen at risk and underscore the escalating aggression we’re witnessing from dictators like Vladimir Putin,” said Sen. Sullivan. “These tactics stand in stark contrast to the skill and discipline of our Alaska-based service members who are on the front lines at all hours in defense of our entire country. I want to commend our Airmen for consistently and professionally executing these complex intercept missions.
Between September 11 and September 15, Alaska-based forces detected and tracked four separate incursions of Russian military aircraft operating in the Alaska ADIZ and one incursion of Russian naval vessels in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.
Sullivan said that the U.S. needs to answer force with force and continue building up America’s military presence in Alaska and the Arctic with more infrastructure, “like the strategic Arctic port at Nome and reopening the Adak Naval Air Facility, and more military assets.”
However, asked about the Nome port expansion’s role to support the U.S.Coast Guard presence in this region, Admiral Gautier said “I'm not here to commit to any kind of full time Coast Guard presence right now. Our model is, is that we're expeditionary, and we need to be where we are in the seasons in which our activities are going to be best supported. So I think there's some challenges in terms of a Coast Guard full time presence, in terms of sustaining all the things that we would need, the housing, the things that might support Coast Guard cutters and things of that nature.”