The Wall Street Journal was first to report that 11 Chinese and Russian warships were spotted off the coast of Alaska, not far from the Aleutian Islands.
According to the Journal, U.S. experts said it was the largest such flotilla to approach American shores. Although the ships never entered U.S. territorial waters, they were shadowed by four U.S. destroyers and P-8 Poseidon aircraft.
“It is a historical first,” said Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a retired Navy captain to the newspaper. “Given the context of the war in Ukraine and tensions around Taiwan, this move is highly provocative.”
Two of the three members of the Alaska U.S. Congressional Delegation issued responses to the report.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and longtime advocate of upgrading the military’s presence in Alaska, posted a statement on the social media platform X:
“The incursion by 11 Chinese and Russian warships operating together – off the coast of Alaska – is yet another reminder that we have entered a new era of authoritarian aggression led by the dictators in Beijing and Moscow,” Sen. Sullivan wrote. “In recognition of this reality and our state’s unrivaled strategic location, for years, I’ve been pressing the Navy and each successive administration to commit to a greater Naval, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps presence in Alaska, more Arctic-capable vessels, and more infrastructure to host these assets, like the deep-water port of Nome.”
Sullivan reminded readers that last summer, the Chinese and Russian navies conducted a similar operation off the coast of Alaska and that President Joe Biden had a weak response.
“Given that our response was tepid, I strongly encouraged senior military leaders to be ready with a much more robust response should such another joint Chinese/Russian naval operation occur off our coast,” Sullivan said. “For that reason, I was heartened to see that this latest incursion was met with four U.S. Navy destroyers, which sends a strong message to Xi Jinping and Putin that the United States will not hesitate to protect and defend our vital national interests in Alaska.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski also issued a statement: “We have been in close contact with leadership from Alaska Command for several days now and received detailed classified briefings about the foreign vessels that are transiting U.S. waters in the Aleutians.”
Murkowski noted that Alaska is in close proximity to China and Russia.
“Incursions like this are why we are working so hard to secure funding and resources to expand our military’s capacity and capabilities in Alaska, and why our colleagues must join us in supporting those investments,” she said.
Murkowski is in Ketchikan this weekend for the Blueberry Festival and a charitable fundraiser for cancer research. Sullivan is finishing his required annual U.S. Marine Reserve training.
Rep. Mary Peltola issued no statement. She is believed to be out of the country during August recess.
Huh. Murkowski has nothing to say. In the mean time, Mary Peltoa is out of the country. Get it while you can Mary. You won’t be in congress long!
Grandpa is gonna bumble us into a war we’re not ready to fight, much less win.
China’s Navy has 623 ships, 572 aircraft. The U.S. Navy has 490 Ships and 2,623 aircraft and a much more modern Navy and Air Force.
We can take China off the high seas within 10 days. So don’t worry masked 😉
You need to take your lips off Princess backside and stop watching Rambo movies.
You do realize “we can, within 10 days”, been the battle cry of nearly every war ever.
Almost never works that way.
7 days.
Ever Heard of 5th Generation Warfare. You’re in it NOW !
As long as China keeps paying millions of $ to the Big Guy & his family those military assets don’t mean much. When the Big Guy gets paid he never let’s you down.
Just look at what grandpa has done to set the US up for failure. He has shut down the petroleum industry. He has drained our strategic reserve to less than 50% capacity. And he has given lots and lots of our military supplies to Ukraine. Who knows how far he has depleted that reserve. The military budget includes lots of funds to train on inclusivity and proper pronouns taken the funds from arms and aircraft budget. And recruitment is way down. Wonder why? Grandpa is definitely setting us for failure. How can we stop this?
If you poke the Bear, it should not come as a surprise that the Bear will react. The Bear really doesn’t care about your DEI score or how woke or righteous you feel.
JMARK, Poking the Bear, Exactly right! Especially when you blow up Russian pipelines in order to benefit your corrupt friends in Poland and Denmark who own a competing pipeline, when you send hundreds of billions of U.S. Taxpayer funds, unaudited, to a nation that you have a history of receiving bribe monies from. The Bear it turns out may not just be Putin or Xi, but the wrath of the American people themselves.
In the old days, wed have had subs keeping a very close eye on them, ready to make them disappear forever
Very glad and honored to hear from Dan and Lisa, those two are Alaska’s double barrel shotgun for our nation as well as our state and all the money senator Murkowski has secured for all branches of military in Alaska was for a good reason. All commanders of our armed services have nothing but high praise for Alaska’s senior Senator including Senator Sullivan and Senate leadership nation wide.
Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell had assigned senator Murkowski to several committees including Armed Services.
Worlds strongest military watching after the great state of Alaska and the Chinese know it!
Sam”theBankman”Fried likes Lisa so much He gave her lots of stolen loot to hide in her warchest for reelection. It seems like if she had a sliver of honesty she would return the stolen money instead of hiding it.
But I dont think honesty was high priority in the bar exam.
LittleGuy; No, you incorrect, Mitch McConnell of the Republican Leadership Committee spent 11 million to get the Great Honorable Republican Senator Murkowski from the Great State of Alaska elected 😉
And you clearly seem to wonder why many of us doubt your claims of conservatism.
Fiscal Conservative, not a member of the uterus police 😉
third gen, Uterus police, huh, like Margret Sanger and her Planned Parenthood eugenics and Mao and the CCP? I suppose it might appear to be fiscally conservative , this snuffing out life, but what does that portend for the VALUE of all life? Even yours.
This is satire right? Murky has more red flags than red China.
Double barrelled Popgun
We are being tested by China and now Russia. We failed the one with the Chinese spy balloons. China and Russia observed and learned that we no longer have teeth.
We were tested by out own govt during Covid. We failed that one too. The US powers-that-be learned that we as a people have no will to be free, but will be obedient.
We’ll be good Chinese citizens when it comes to that!
“Yeah, but Trump!” won’t count for much when we’ve wrecked our economy, our dollar, and our energy sector. The question is will it be too late when enough on the Left realize obeying the narrative has hollowed out our present and future.
You have pretty much summed up the Obama/Biden debacle.
Yeah you better get the Navy up here. Manuvers.
Then they will stop playing games like this. Otherwise, they are going to push the envelope, and probably bomb us, just for good measure.
They have vengeance to seek, and blood to spill.
Looks like they have, so someone is paying attention. Thank God for the US Navy!
Dear Honorable U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and longtime advocate of upgrading the military’s presence in Alaska. Before we can deal with world issues we must first deal with the new era of authoritarian aggression led within our country. We must start at the lowest level with one vote per US resident/verified. Rank choice voting must go and return the system we had 4 years ago. Our current DC gate is costing the us citizen plenty and enough is enough.
You’re assuming we’re gonna have that gift of time.
Go to Russia or China for actual authoratarian rule. You come across like the spoiled American that you are.
Spoiled American? “THAT DOG DON’T HUNT!” Alaska’s Congressional Delegation, the GOP and RNC, are owned by the “UNIPARTY” (controlled opposition to the Marxist/Democrats). They have allowed the downfall of Alaska by dastardly and foolhardy actions and inactions, taken against Alaskan’s. The Alaskan People MUST ELEVATE ALASKA’S STRATEGIC NATIONAL SECURITY PRIORITY in spite of our FECKLESS Congressional Delegation. FREEDOM & LIBERTY…BY THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED! Stop the impending “invasion” of Alaska by National Security Action taken through building a Railroad to Norton Sound, Refinery in FBX, Norton Sound Deepwater Port, and Pipelines to ship low-cost Alaskan refined fuel to the Bush! That’s Freedom from the Marxist’s, Globalists, and Uniparty-Totalitarian’s!
Ease up on the meth there John, it’s making you paranoid. And BTW, all caps don’t help you get your point across any better.
Sen. Sullivan has nothing to do with RCV in Alaska. Establishing the “time, place and manner” of conducing elections is determined by the States, not the federal government.
This just in. Peltola issues a response. “Gosh, I wonder if our communist friends brought me fortune cookies.”
But seriously, Its no surprise the communist Chinese crooks would pal around with Putin, who is a state sponsor of terror.
Our military is a hollow shell, having driven out the true patriots for years. We have a bribed communist agent as C-in-C. Alaska would be an easy pick. Russia sold us Alaska because it was vulnerable to the British fleet and easily attached to British No. America (Canada). We are still low-hanging fruit. The best way to protect Alaska is to have the U.S. stop provoking endless wars, invented by the Deep State/CIA/CFR. Dan Sullivan is a CFR member. His posturing is merely meant for the gullible. Did you know? ‘https://www.cfr.org/membership/roster.
Look on the bright side the two could just be rendezvousing for a tea party. Do you think we should crash their little party and join them. That’s what Ambassadors used to be used for going into intense situations between nations and de-escalating hostility instead of being a bumbling Woke officer for equity and social justice.
Maybe they were protecting their fishing flotilla dragging our waters with deep nets to intercept retuning salmon. Just a theory of course.
Ha, ha good one , Trig. Only problem is that, that fishing flotilla dragging our waters with deep nets and decimating our King salmon, King Crab & Halibut is the Seattle based factory trawler fleet politically protected by our Congressional delegation who appear to be afraid to confront the powerful Washington State Democrat Congressional delegation over bycatch & wanton waste! Never hear Sullivan talking about that, do you?
You can be sure that our congresswoman is all over it.
Seattle based is effectively foreign!
The authoritarian aggression being waged against the leading political opposition figure here at home is far more of a threat to America. Domestic terror organizations looted, burned cities, murdered innocents, pulled people out of cars and intimidated. Those leaders are millionaires, while hundreds of Americans rot in federal prison who dared to protest the fraudulent process installing the regime using the shell of a man they call Biden. We installed a ruthless dictator in Ukraine who killed fellow citizens who speak Russian. In the process we escalated to a war which has demilitarized NATO and our inventory of weapons and ammo. If “liberating” Taiwan is more important than restoring America, maybe becoming self sufficient in industry and energy was more important than relying on our enemies before starting another war with them.
Their presence isn’t happenstance. It’s the Biden administration’s support of the Ukraine side of the war that has opened up Alaska to danger.
Russia would have absolutely no need to focus on Alaska if it weren’t for the US interventionist policies that places US-created armaments and US soldiers/personnel in the Ukraine fighting against Russia.
It’s too late to distance ourselves from DC’s actions, sadly. Not because there’s nothing to be done, but, because it seems as if Alaska’s elected representatives have publicly stated that they support US involvement in a foreign war.
Remarkable and rare to read comments from an individual who understands the reasons there is the most destructive and violent war occurring in Ukraine since WWII. The constant escalation by the Biden Administration and it’s EU/NATO lapdogs could lead to a much broader war. Ukraine itself is finished, in a much worse state than we left South Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. But there remain a few more Ukrainians to die, a few more cluster munitions to expend and armored vehicles to watch burn.
Putin thanks you for your support comrade.
Sullivan knows that these drills are being conducted in International waters & legally there is nothing we can do about it. Our Navy routinely conducts the same excercises much closer to the Chinese mainland.
Exactly right. There was no “incursion” as these ships remained in international waters where they have every right to be. In the same way, our ships also have every right to (and frequently do) conduct exercises in international waters off the coasts of China, Russia and any other country.
Sullivan knows that these drills are being conducted in International waters & legally there is nothing we can do about it. Our Navy routinely conducts the same excercises much closer to the Chinese mainland. t
Where is Mary Peltola and why isn’t her office saying anything???
Maybe a spur is being planned for the “Silk Road? 40 miles of bridge?
Pebble mine and the majority of the entire north slop sits there with “closed for business “signs.
If there ever is a battle ( when is more likely, history has been known to repeat itself once or twice)
They need resources. 90% of everything in any store in the US comes from a communist country and the fuel we use to get to those stores comes from other enemies. Once a few of the US military are captured and repeatedly miss gendered. The rest will have their “ tuckable”uniforms in such a wad.
Whenever someone starts their statement with “We have been in close contact” you know its a democrat. Sounds just like bidens press secretary kJP
Brent. ??? Historical first ??? This happened about 1 year ago also so he must mean a historical second. Curiously the 2 anchorage rags are not reporting on this. Heck it’s only 2 enemy countries circling in our space what could possibly go wrong ??? We have such upstanding leadership in the White House. Ha ha.
Why is this just being reported now, by News Media and Government,when the WSJ said they completed their exercise already and were done last week? Why always after the fact? Also said have done the exercise a number of times, why is it so urgent now when they weren’t in AK waters? Why is Murkowski’s answer always whip out the Taxpayer Funded Credit Card and spend more money? In typical fashion, What Other News are they trying to bury/cover up?
Maybe(?), these aggressive actions by China and Russia could potentially help facilitate advancement of future Military Projects such as …
– Reinstate the Navy Base @ Adak with a contingent of Subs, Destroyers, Frigates and a an Aircraft Carrier.
– Establish a new Space Force Base in Fairbanks.
– Establish a new North Slope Base @ Prudhoe Bay (Over-The-Pole … Watch, Listen & Track Activities w/ Nuclear Missiles and Quick Reactionary ‘Super-Sonic’ Air Forces), something like we had at Oliktok Point.
– Build-Out // Expand Ft. Greely Missile Field.
– Create a new Alliance between UAF, Boeing, Raytheon, Lockhead Martin, Northrop Grumman, etc. to help develop Hypersonic Technologies. Locate this Alliance in either Fairbanks (Eilson AFB) or Ft Greely.
– Establish a USCG Ice Breaker Fleet (4-ea Ice Breakers) based in Nome & Prudhoe Bay.
– Establish a USCG Auxiliary Base in St. Paul and/or St. George.
– USCG Build-Out // Expand @ Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, Homer, Whittier, Valdez, Sitka and Juneau.
– Establish a Military Prison, such as Guantanamo, located at a remote location on the North Slope. Somewhere nice, where traitors (spy’s and criminal politics) and war criminals could enjoy the winters and summers!
– Expand existing facilities and command @ JBER, Ft. Wainwright, Eilson AFB, Ft. Greely, Clear AFB, Shemya AFB
That’s what happens when we push the rules in the China sea and we have a lack of intelligence in the White House.
I hope Lisa gets right on this. The Chinese and Russians are coming a bit too close to the Murkowski’s pleasure yacht.
Dan and Lisa are provoking the war between Russia & Ukraine. Of course it’s going to inevitably turn into America becoming more involved in the war at some point. What do you think led to the attack on Pearl Harbor? History repeats itself.
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