Alaska troops deploy to remote Shemya Island, less than 300 miles from Russia

The U.S. Army has deployed soldiers from Alaska, Hawaii and Washington state to an air station on Shemya Island in the Aleutians, about 280 miles from Russia.

That’s as Russian aircraft and naval vessels have traveled near Alaska on multiple occasions in the past week.

The Alaska Beacon reports the deployment, which includes the 11th Airborne Division, is the first to Shemya for the Fort Wainwright-based soldiers since 2018.

And Alaska Beacon reporter James Brooks says it coincides with Russia and China conducting joint military exercises in the Sea of Japan.

Listen:

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This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

James Brooks: It is out of the ordinary. This is, or appears to be, the biggest exercise on Shemya since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Now, the Army has deployed missile units in Shemya before, temporarily, so that’s not new. The airborne has gone out there before, so that’s not new. This time around, there’s three main Army units. One is elements of the 11th Airborne Infantry, which is based here in Alaska. There’s also soldiers from Washington State and Hawaii. The soldiers in those places are what’s called “Multi-Domain Task Forces.” And what that boils down to is a lot of different equipment headed to Shemya.

Casey Grove: And then you wrote in your story that a HIMARS unit had previously deployed to Shemya, this is a few years ago. And then more recently, Navy SEALs had conducted an exercise there just in 2023. And I guess, you know, focusing on HIMARS, what is that?

JB: So HIMARS is basically rocket artillery. It’s been used in Ukraine. The United States sent some units over there. It’s got longer range than normal artillery, which makes it useful in Ukraine, but it’s not super long range missiles. We’re not talking about Cuban Missile Crisis part two, Alaska version.

CG:So, you know, I mean, there have been various things said about this. I had seen a statement from Gov. (Mike) Dunleavy. I think there was a statement from Sen. Dan Sullivan. Different people have characterized this differently. But is it really just posturing, or is there something more serious going on there?

JB: I’d say it’s, based on what we know, it’s a little of Column A, a little of Column B. Alaska’s elected officials have been pushing for a long time to have a greater military presence in Alaska, in large part because that brings a lot of economic benefits to the state. More soldiers means more people buying things, means more construction, and that’s generally good for the state’s economy, and so they want it.

At the same time, Russia and China have been doing joint patrols in the waters and airspace off western Alaska, and that has some people concerned. During this exercise, while the U.S. Army has been out there, Russia and China have been running joint naval drills near Japan. At the same time, there have also been aircraft flying through international airspace near Alaska, and so people are a little more on guard than they would otherwise, but this is nothing like what it was during the Cold War.

CG: So James, I mean, do you have any indication, I guess, at this point, that there might be more troops sent out to Shemya, or how long the ones that are there might be there?

JB: It’s worth noting that Shemya doesn’t normally have a large, permanent military presence. There’s usually only about 150, maybe a few hundred, primarily contractors, operating a large radar station out there that detects satellites, incoming missiles, if there ever were to be such a thing. And so there’s not normally large numbers of soldiers out there. It’s September. The weather tends to get bad, or even worse, in the Aleutians than it normally is in winter. And so whenever there’s a fall deployment, those soldiers typically leave by the time winter sets in in earnest.