Sen. Dan Sullivan secures Arctic defense deals amid Sino-Russian threats

Exclusive: After US officials detected a sharp rise in Russian and Chinese military incursions near Alaska – including a growing number of joint operations – Senator Dan Sullivan warned that the Arctic was becoming an active security front. He is pressing Congress to speed up construction of icebreakers, reopen Cold War-era bases, and bolster American defenses in the region.

Sullivan’s warning comes as new data shows a sharp rise in foreign military traffic near Alaska, a trend he says has gone largely unnoticed outside the region even with close coordination between Moscow and Beijing. He says this activity revealed the weakness of US capabilities in the Arctic, and why Washington is now scrambling to catch up.

“Let’s just say that the world’s largest fleet of oceanographic survey ships were not off the coast of Alaska to rescue whales,” Sullivan told Fox News Digital in an interview.

president Donald Trump Sullivan said the ongoing friction with Denmark over Greenland reflects the growing importance of the Arctic to the administration. As the melting ice opened new shipping lanes, access to energy, and military roads, Alaska became a front line in the competition for economic and strategic dominance.

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Xi Jinping, left, and Vladimir Putin (Sergey Gunev / Reuters)

Sullivan said the plans to restart long-range military operations away from Russia’s back door — recently revisited in Tom Cruise’s latest movie, “Mission: Impossible” — along with critical new port infrastructure and a major infusion of funds for the U.S. Coast Guard, are all efforts to demonstrate the one thing America’s adversaries respect: “strength.”

Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, recently chaired a Senate Commerce Subcommittee hearing to examine The presence of the US Coast Guard in the Arctic And we discussed a new U.S.-Finnish deal to secure new icebreaker vehicles and funding from the recent tax cut bill to fund at least three USCG security cutters in the Arctic amid a record total investment of $25 billion in Coast Guard prowess.

He added that the United States currently possesses two, one of which is out of service, while the Russians possess 54 “nuclear-powered and armed” icebreakers.

Sullivan shared data with Fox News Digital showing a sharp rise in joint Russian-Chinese and Sino-Russian military aircraft and naval incursions into the U.S. Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, a security buffer zone that extends beyond the 12 nautical mile sovereign U.S. airspace where foreign aircraft are required to identify themselves.

Since 2019, more than 100 Russian aircraft, four Chinese ships, and, most worryingly, more than a dozen joint operations have entered the AERZ, Sullivan said.

Trump’s recent focus on Greenland has underscored the urgency of the matter National Security in the ArcticChina’s expanding “research” presence in the region is becoming increasingly aggressive, Sullivan said, echoing warnings from NATO’s top US air force commander, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich.

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He added that while the Russians sympathize with the Arctic, describing China as a “near-Arctic power” is confusing and troubling, referring to its actual location on the globe.

Sullivan said the situation was reminiscent of Vladimir Lenin’s slogan that when probing an enemy with a bayonet, “If you find too much mush, push. If you find steel, withdraw.”

He said the United States must fortify itself against these threats, and Congress must be on the front lines, ensuring that resources and defenses are ready and in service.

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Russia and China conduct joint air patrols near Alaska. (Russian Ministry of Defense/Getty Images)

“The only thing our adversaries from authoritarian regimes understand is power. And that is American energy security, the Coast Guard, military assets and infrastructure.”

As Chairman of the Senate Merchant Coast Guard Subcommittee, Sullivan said he is working hard to ensure that this is what Moscow and Beijing will see, noting the new Icebreaker ship Storeys It received funding for its main port in Juneau, along with 16 additional icebreakers and $4.5 billion to build onshore infrastructure.

In addition, World War II era base on remote areas Adak in the Aleutian series Sullivan revealed that he is on his way to reopening.

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The base, somewhat dramatized in “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning”, which included an anti-Soviet eavesdropping post on nearby St. Matthew Island, was essential to Allied defenses when Japan bombed present-day Dutch Harbor and invaded the islands of Attu and Kiska, events less remembered than the other Axis’ Pacific attack on Pearl Harbor.

The ADAC base was largely closed in 1994 after the end of the Cold War.

Sullivan revealed that he received $115 million to begin rebuilding Adak, in addition to $500 million to establish a deep-water port in Nome, one of the closest cities to both Russia and the Arctic Ocean.

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The state of Alaska matched Nome’s investment and committed $30 million of its own money to the new ADAC project, Sullivan said. Gov. Mike Dunleavy separately told Fox News Digital that enhancing Alaska’s icebreaking capabilities and expanding the Coast Guard’s presence to protect the state’s coast are key.

“[Further,] Supporting life-saving missions Countering foreign influence in the Arctic They are vital not only to our state but to the nation as a whole. Alaska is ready to receive these icebreakers and take advantage of our geostrategic location to advance Trump’s America First agendaDunleavy said.

The Arctic — and the Antarctic — are also important for space sensors that detect long-range missile attacks, said Brent Sadler, a naval warfare expert and veteran at the Heritage Foundation.

US commander says Russian and Chinese patrols in the Arctic are “not for peaceful purposes.”

“China and Russia have impacted the livelihoods of our fishermen through military exercises in our EEZ (exclusive economic zone)… (and) should be viewed as a threat. They should be adequately deterred and repelled through increased Coast Guard presence,” Sadler said.

Many Russian incursions Recently raised in Anadyr, just across the Bering Strait from Nome, Adak is located a few hundred miles east of Kamchatka in Russia.

Paired with Trump’s Golden Dome Security InitiativeSullivan said it’s time to beef up the Arctic’s defenses as malicious activity continues in his backyard.

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He said the slogan “Peace through Strength” is best presented this way, as each area targeted in the latest allocation brings American might to truth. Russia and China face, versus more densely populated but less strategic areas for construction such as Kodiak and Anchorage.

“We have to keep the tension up, and I give President Trump and his team a lot of credit,” Sullivan said. “He was talking about the Arctic issues and icebreakers and missile defense during his first term, and now we’re doing it.”

“It matters because the Chinese and Russians understand one thing: power — big, flashy rhetoric without backing it up with military force really means nothing.”