U.S. military experts say a formation of four Russian and Chinese bombers that flew through international airspace off Alaska last month signals China’s growing interest in the Arctic and Russia’s intention to support its ally’s operations in the region.
The sortie of two Russian bombers and two Chinese bombers through international airspace off Alaska was unprecedented – a fact that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed in a news briefing he held the day after the incident.
Jet fighters based in Alaska and Canada intercepted the formation on July 24 and accompanied it through the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ. Austin says the combined Russian-Chinese operation signals the growing ties between the two nations and their mutual interest in operating in the Arctic.
“This is a relationship that we have been concerned about,” he said.
Austin said that concern mainly is based on China helping Russia sustain its invasion of Ukraine. But he agreed when a reporter asked whether the two nations were testing the United States and its allies by flying the aircraft jointly through the Alaska ADIZ airspace.
“As to whether or not our adversaries are testing us at this particular time – they’re always testing us,” he said, “and that’s no surprise to any of us.”
‘This is an escalation’
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said the bombers’ flight off Alaska’s coasts reflects increase efforts by China to operate in the Arctic. He said in a news release issued a few hours after the flight was interdicted that “Alaska continues to be on the front lines of the authoritarian aggression by the dictators in Russia and China who are increasingly working together.
“Make no mistake, this is an escalation – the first time that Russia and China have sent a joint bomber task force into the Alaska ADIZ,” Sullivan said in the news release.
A University of Alaska Fairbanks Arctic security expert agrees.
“This signifies a relatively substantial increase in military cooperation between both China and Russia,” said Cameron Carlson, a founder and former director of UAF’s Center for Arctic Security and Resilience. “And that’s significant.
China ‘signaling’ more joint operations
“I think it also serves as a major piece of geopolitical signaling, that they are coming together, that they are going to be conducting more joint military activities,” said Carlson, who’s now the dean of the UAF College of Business and Security Management.
U.S. and Canadian air forces have for years intercepted Russian aircraft flying through the Alaska ADIZ. More recently, U.S. Coast Guard and Navy vessels have tracked Russian and Chinese warships transiting international waters within the 200-mile U.S. exclusive economic zone around Alaska. Carlson expects more combined operations. He said former Northern Command and NORAD commander Gen. Glen VanHerck believes last week’s aircraft incursion shows the Chinese now have access to Russian airfields in the Arctic.
“Which gives them now proximity in terms of projecting power to the United States that they never had in the past,” he added.
Carlson said while last month’s incursion was a first, it likely won’t be the last.
Tim Ellis is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
