OPINION: Russian and Chinese posturing is a Cold War echo for Alaska

Could Cold War tensions return to Alaska? Increasing Russian air and naval exercises off Alaska’s coasts, now joined by the Chinese, could portend things to come. Alaskans seem mostly unaware of this, although Air Force and Army commanders at our military installations certainly aren’t.

Let’s be clear: A Russian-Chinese invasion of Alaska isn’t in the cards, although some Russian political blowhards, Putin’s buddies, talk of “taking back” Alaska, which was once controlled by Russia.

What’s going on? There have been numerous flights along Alaska’s coasts in the last two weeks with as many as four Russian bombers in one day. There were Russian naval surface ships and even two submarines detected in the Chukchi Sea. The most recent aerial incursion had a Russian interceptor fly within feet of one or our F-16s.

This is posturing, of course, though it does signal something. But what?

Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin, is embroiled in his brutal, wasteful war in Ukraine. We’re helping Ukraine defend against Putin’s invasion. This is probably Putin’s way of reminding America that his country is just three miles away from us. That’s the distance separating the U.S. and Little Diomede Island from Russia and Big Diomede Island in the Bering Strait.

The Air Force isn’t saying when and how interceptors are scrambled to greet our Russian friends. Photos in the media of the recent near-miss with a Russian interceptor show interceptions are happening, though.

We’ve seen a lot of this before. Alaskans with a memory of Soviet times will remember that Russian flights along our coasts seemed common. They were obviously testing response times and trying to learn more about our defenses. I’m sure we did the same thing, though our military never admitted it.

There was almost a sense of camaraderie at times, with flyers from both sides sometimes waving to each other — or at other times giving that obscene finger gesture.

Back in the day, before satellites, the Alaska Army National Guard’s scout battalions in western Alaska villages were important. When people were out hunting, they kept an eye on things. For example, in the 1960s, local scouts on Saint Lawrence Island found evidence that unknown people had come ashore — no doubt a Soviet practice reconnaissance.

The recent activity seems more than showing the flag, however. We know Putin and the Chinese are flexing muscles in the Arctic because they want access and control of Arctic resources and sea routes. I believe they are now asserting their rights more aggressively, and they are testing us.

The U.S. is responding. We recently deployed some troops and equipment to the Aleutians to demonstrate getting boots on the ground quickly. Last year, we met a flotilla of Russian ships in the Bering Sea with four Arleigh Burke-class U.S. Navy destroyers, vessels with a lot of firepower.

We need to be doing more. There’s still no permanent U.S. naval presence in the North Pacific, Bering Sea or the Arctic.

We’re expanding the Port of Nome, which is near the Bering Strait, but the water depths won’t be sufficient to handle deep-draft Navy ships. There is an excellent natural deep-water harbor at Port Clarence at the western tip of the Seward Peninsula and adjacent to the Bering Strait. There is infrastructure, too, with the Nome-Teller highway nearby.

If we’re serious about defense in the Arctic, we would take advantage of this. Russia, meanwhile, is rebuilding its Soviet-era Arctic bases.

As for icebreakers, this is an old story. We have comparatively little capability in the Arctic. One operating Coast Guard vessel, the Healy, is really designed for support of research. A second ship soon to be available is a leased commercial oil-support vessel with some icebreaking capabilities.

The one operating U.S. heavy icebreaker, the Polar Star, is committed to Antarctica and is unavailable. For Alaskans who think about more than their Permanent Fund dividends, this should be a little unnerving.

We’ve actually done a lot to build regional defense, however. The presence of 500 advanced interceptors between Anchorage’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, and the aerial tanker refueling capability at Eielson operated by the Alaska Air National Guard, send strong signals.

There’s also a newly advanced missile radar at Clear in the Interior, and at Shemya in the Aleutians, along with the missile defense interceptors at Fort Greely, southeast of Fairbanks.

A way of looking at this, however, is that the Bering Strait and Bering Sea present a kind of strategic weakness for Putin. Russia is increasingly reliant on shipping liquefied natural gas and crude oil from its Arctic oil and gas producing regions to Asia though the Bering Strait.

If China wants access to the Arctic, which it does, it must also go through the Bering Strait. Obviously, Putin sees a threat to this vital corridor. He can see Alaska from Russia, after all.

What’s disappointing to me, however, is that some American politicians, mostly conservatives, seem supportive of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and soon other places. Back in the day, American conservatives were the first to ring the alarms over the threat of Russia.

How things change. Russia was Communist then, but dictators are all the same.

Tim Bradner is publisher of the Alaska Economic Report and Alaska Legislative Digest.

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