US patrol shadows Russian naval vessel near Alaska amid growing concerns of adversarial encounters in High North

US Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley shadowed a Russian naval vessel near Alaska recently. (US Coast Guard)

US Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Alex Haley (WMEC-39) detected and then shadowed a Russian Federation Vishnya-class naval vessel recently south of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, the USCG confirmed on 9 August.

The encounter comes as US defence officials and analysts are warning of increasing incursions of Russian and Chinese military forces into that region – in the air and on the sea – and the growing interest of both in the Arctic and in the High North.

For more information about a recent encounter between US and Chinese naval forces in the Bering Sea, please seeUS Coast Guard tracks more Chinese naval ships in Bering Sea .

“On [24] July … North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) intercepted two Chinese Xi'an H-6K bombers and two Russian Tu-95MS Bear bombers flying near Alaska,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) noted in a 30 July online analysis.

“Both types of bombers are nuclear capable,” the CSIS pointed out. “The bombers were intercepted by American F-16s and F-35s and Canadian CF-18 fighter jets. While the aircraft remained in international airspace and did not fly into Canadian or US sovereign airspace, they were operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). These joint flights come at a time of growing great power competition and solidifying the Chinese-Russian ‘no limits' partnership. This incident was the first of its kind for the two countries, showing a willingness of Beijing and Moscow to extend co-operation to their strategic nuclear forces and signalling their continued testing of US resolve, including through actions in proximity to the US homeland.”