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

SPECIAL: After U.S. officials detected a sharp increase in Russian and Chinese military incursions (including a growing number of joint operations) near Alaska, Senator Dan Sullivan is warning that the Arctic has become an active security frontier and pushing Congress to accelerate icebreaker construction, reopen Cold War-era bases and strengthen U.S. defenses in the region.

Sullivan’s warning comes as new data shows foreign military traffic near Alaska has increased sharply; This trend has gone largely unnoticed outside the region, Sullivan says, even as Moscow and Beijing cooperate more closely. He argues that the activity reveals how weakened US Arctic capabilities have become and why Washington is now scrambling to catch up.

“Let’s say the world’s largest fleet of oceanographic research vessels wasn’t off the coast of Alaska to ‘save the whales,'” Sullivan said in an interview on Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump’s ongoing friction with Denmark over Greenland reflects the growing importance of the Arctic to the administration, Sullivan said. As melting ice opens new shipping lanes, energy access and military routes, Alaska becomes the front line in the struggle for economic and strategic supremacy.

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Recently revisited in Tom Cruise’s latest “Mission: Impossible” episode, plans to relaunch massive military operations at Russia’s backdoor, significant new port infrastructure and a massive infusion of cash into the U.S. Coast Guard are, Sullivan says, efforts to demonstrate the one thing America’s enemies respect: “strength.”

Sullivan, R-Alaska, recently chaired a Senate Commerce Subcommittee hearing examining the U.S. Coast Guard’s presence in the Arctic, discussing a new U.S.-Finland agreement examining the Coast Guard’s presence in the Arctic and funding from the recent tax-cut bill for at least three USCG Arctic security cutters, with a record $25 billion total investment in the Coast Guard’s capability, as well as a new U.S.-Finland agreement to secure major new icebreaker ships. discussed the agreement.

He said the Russians have 54 icebreaker ships that are “nuclear-powered and armed” while the United States currently has two, one of which is out of service.

Sullivan shared data with Fox News Digital showing a sharp increase in naval attacks by Russian, Chinese and joint Sino-Russian military aircraft and the ADIZ, the U.S. Air Defense Identification Zone (a security buffer that extends beyond 12 nautical miles of sovereign U.S. airspace where foreign craft 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 ADIZ, Sullivan said.

Trump’s recent focus on Greenland underscores the urgency of Arctic national security, Sullivan said, echoing warnings from NATO commander USAF Gen. Alexus Grynkewich that China’s expanding “research” presence in the region is becoming increasingly aggressive.

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He added that it is confusing and worrying that Russia identifies with the Arctic, but that China calls it a “near-Arctic power” and pointed out Russia’s real position in the world.

Sullivan said the situation is reminiscent of Vladimir Lenin’s mantra: When you probe an enemy with a bayonet, “if you find mush, push, if you find steel, retreat.”

The United States must strengthen itself against these threats, he said, and Congress must be on the front lines, ensuring resources and defense are ready and available.

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

“The only thing our enemies, the authoritarian regimes, understand is power, and that is U.S. energy security, the Coast Guard, military assets and infrastructure.”

As chairman of the Senate Commerce Coast Guard subcommittee, Sullivan said he is working hard to make sure Moscow and Beijing see this, too. Storis icebreaker ship $4.5 billion in funding was provided for an additional 16 icebreakers and coastal infrastructure at the main port in Juneau.

Additionally, Sullivan revealed that a World War II-era base at far-flung Adak in the Aleutian Chain is on track to reopen.

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Nearby St. Slightly dramatized in “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning”, which featured a counter-Soviet listening post on Matthew Island, the base was key to Allied defense as Japan bombed modern-day crab port Dutch Harbor and occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska; these events are less remembered than the Axis’ other Pacific attack on Pearl Harbor.

Adak Base was largely closed in 1994 following the end of the Cold War.

Sullivan announced that he had secured $115 million to begin the reconstruction of Adak and $500 million to establish a deep-water port in Nome, one of the closest cities to Russia and the Arctic Ocean.

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Sullivan said that the state of Alaska also matched the Nome investment and transferred $30 million of its own funds to the new Adak project. As Gov. Mike Dunleavy told Fox News Digital separately, it’s important to improve Alaska’s ice-breaking capabilities and expand the Coast Guard’s presence to protect the state’s coastline.

“[Further,] Supporting lifesaving missions and countering foreign influence in the Arctic is vital not only to our state but to the nation as a whole. Dunleavy said Alaska is ready to accept these icebreakers and strengthen our geostrategic position to advance Trump’s America First agenda.

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

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“China and Russia have impacted the livelihoods of our fishermen by conducting military exercises in our EEZ (exclusive economic zone) … should be viewed as a threat. This needs to be deterred and appropriately pushed back with increased Coast Guard presence,” Sadler said.

Most of Russia’s recent attacks have originated from Anadyr (just across the Bering Strait from Nome), and Adak is located just a few hundred miles east of Kamchatka, Russia.

With Trump’s Golden Dome security initiative, Sullivan said now is the time to “step up” Arctic defenses as malign activity continues in his backyard.

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That’s how the “peace through strength” mantra can best be fulfilled, he said, as every area targeted in the latest appropriation puts U.S. power directly in the face of Russia and China, compared to more populated but less strategic areas like Kodiak and Anchorage.

“We have to move on, and I have a lot of confidence in President Trump and his team. In his first term, he was talking about Arctic issues, icebreakers and missile defense, and now that’s what we’re doing,” Sullivan said.

“This is important because the Chinese and Russians understand one thing: power; big grandiose speeches that are not backed by military force actually mean nothing.”