Sullivan: Alaska experiencing largest military buildup since WWII amid rising Arctic threats

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said Saturday Alaska is undergoing its largest military buildup since World War II, but warned increased Russian and Chinese activity in the Arctic demands greater investment in the nation’s northern defenses.

The Alaska Republican — who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation’s Subcommittee on Coast Guard, Maritime and Fisheries — convened a field hearing at the University of Alaska Anchorage focused on Arctic security infrastructure, with five expert witnesses, including a former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the nation’s first Arctic ambassador.

“We are now undergoing the largest military buildup and expansion, billions of dollars in investment in Alaska, since World War II,” Sullivan said in his opening statement. “My belief is we’re doing a lot, but we need to do more.”

The hearing comes as joint Russian-Chinese military operations near Alaska’s coastline have occurred with “increasing frequency and sophistication,” according to Sullivan. He noted a Russian incursion occurred 10 days before Saturday’s hearing.

Sullivan presented charts showing joint Russian-Chinese strategic bomber flights and naval task force operations near Alaska — activity he said is “not happening anywhere else in America, only in Alaska.”

In an interview following the hearing, Sullivan explained his decision to bring a Senate hearing to Alaska.

“That panel of five Arctic experts, that would be an all-star panel in D.C. Those were all Alaskans,” Sullivan said. “The people of Alaska came out in ways that had a huge impact, stopping bases from being shuttered, stopping big military units from being cut or completely disbanded.”

Major Investments Detailed

The senator outlined defense spending flowing to Alaska, including a $25 billion Coast Guard expansion — the largest in the service’s history. The investment includes 16 new icebreakers, 22 new cutters and 40 new helicopters.

On Aug. 11, the United States Coast Guard’s newest polar icebreaker, the Storis, arrived at Auke Bay in Juneau. The vessel measured 360 feet in length and was designed to operate in the Arctic.

The icebreaker was commissioned to expand the United States’ presence in the region.

Alaska now has more than 100 fifth-generation fighters between F-35 squadrons at Eielson Air Force Base and F-22 squadrons at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

The 425th Infantry Brigade Combat Team at JBER has been expanded into the Army’s 11th Airborne Division, now centered in Alaska.

Strategic Infrastructure Projects

Sullivan highlighted three main infrastructure projects.

The Port of Nome received $400 million to begin construction of the nation’s first Arctic deep-water port, with work scheduled to start this summer. The port will serve as a forward staging hub for the Coast Guard and Navy while supporting more than 50 surrounding communities, many of them Alaska Native villages.

Nome’s Port Director Joy Baker emphasized the project’s urgency in her testimony.

“The Arctic deep draft port project in Nome is designed to serve as the critical refueling and resupply facility in the U.S. Arctic for U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels,” Baker said. “Without this vital maritime infrastructure, U.S. National Security operations in the Arctic will be constrained, the U.S. will fall further behind Russia and China, who are operating in the region with increasing persistence.”

Gen. Gregory Guillot, the current NORTHCOM commander, has called the Port of Nome “a game changer for operations in the Arctic,” Sullivan said in the hearing.

The naval base at Adak received $115 million to begin reopening.

The base sits at what Sullivan called the “strategic hinge” between the Arctic and Indo-Pacific.

The project involves all military services as well as the Aleut Corporation and the state of Alaska, which contributed $30 million to repave runways, Sullivan said.

Retired Gen. Joe Ralston, former Joint Chiefs of Staff vice chairman, stressed Adak’s strategic importance.

“Adak is 1,100 nautical miles closer to the Taiwan Strait than any of our bases in Hawaii,” Ralston testified. “Arctic security cannot be effectively managed from outside of the region. A permanent presence is required to ensure we have military capability where we need it, when we need it.”

JBER is receiving a $1 billion investment for a new runway, part of a broader missile defense expansion including a billion-dollar long-range discrimination radar system.

Sullivan said the new runway at JBER represents nearly half a billion dollars going to local contractors and construction unions.

Threat Assessment

Sullivan said Russia continues to expand its Arctic footprint with 54 icebreakers, many nuclear-powered and weaponized, along with deep-water ports, airfields and forward operating bases.

China, despite having no Arctic territory, calls itself a “near-Arctic state” and is rapidly expanding its polar capabilities, he said. Chinese research vessels operated off Alaska’s coast throughout last summer, likely for military purposes, according to Sullivan.

He cited a Dec. 29 Wall Street Journal article warning Chinese mastery of Arctic travel could position nuclear-armed submarines closer to U.S. targets.

“These activities are deliberate,” Sullivan said. “They test our readiness, our response time and our resolve.”

Retired Maj. Gen. Randy “Church” Kee, director of the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies, said the pattern represents a shift.

“This is not signaling. This is the new normal,” Kee testified. “This pattern is a normalization of sustained great power competition in the Arctic between Beijing, Moscow against the United States and the West.”

In the post-hearing interview, Sullivan emphasized the significance of joint Russian-Chinese operations.

“The really concerning element are those joint Russian-Chinese incursions into our airspace and into our waters,” Sullivan said. “There’s no way that you would be doing joint operations, joint strategic bomber raids and task forces into our airspace, joint naval operations, without Putin and Xi Jinping of China signing off on that.”

Ralston testified such coordinated military operations require approval from the highest levels of both governments, based on his experience organizing joint exercises with Russia in the 1990s.

Expert Witnesses

The hearing featured testimony from Mike Sfraga, University of Alaska Fairbanks interim chancellor and former U.S. ambassador at large for Arctic affairs; Ralston, Kee, Baker and Steve White, Marine Exchange of Alaska executive director.

Sfraga told the committee “Arctic infrastructure and Alaska infrastructure are national security imperatives,” noting the state sits at the nexus of domestic and foreign policy.

“Security in the Arctic begins with presence, presence requires access, access requires infrastructure,” Sfraga said.

He recommended thinking of Nome not just as a port but as an integrated “port complex” that could co-locate federal, state and local agencies for monitoring vessels, supporting research and enabling economic development.

White emphasized the need for forward operating capability in the Arctic.

“We’re not just bringing icebreakers closer to ice, we’re bringing patrol cutters closer to the fight,” White said, noting 20% of Russia’s GDP flows through the Bering Strait. He stressed the importance of public-private partnerships and collaboration with Alaska communities.

Infrastructure Gap

Sullivan displayed maps showing billions of dollars in Navy infrastructure investment along a “central avenue of approach” through the Pacific, compared to minimal infrastructure along a “northern avenue of approach” through the Arctic — despite the northern route being “much quicker” and “where all the activity is.”

Ralston noted an operational challenge under the current infrastructure.

“It takes several hours to get to the places that we need to be to intercept those airplanes” entering Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone, Ralston said, describing the process of launching AWACS, tankers and fighters from existing bases.

Icebreaker Gap

Sullivan highlighted an “icebreaker gap” between the U.S. and Russia, which operates 54 icebreakers compared to America’s limited fleet.

Ralston recalled a 1988 incident when three whales became trapped in ice north of Barrow during the Cold War.

“The United States of America had to go to the Soviet Union and beg for an icebreaker to come in and rescue the whales,” Ralston testified. “That’s why I support Nome, but wherever else we can get them to the north.”

The Port of Nome expansion project reached a milestone in January 2024 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced a Project Partnership Agreement with the state of Alaska.

The bipartisan infrastructure law allocated $250 million for the port’s construction. Alaska’s congressional delegation, including Senators Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski and former Rep. Mary Peltola, applauded the partnership agreement at the time.

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