A U.S. Coast Guard cutter on routine patrol around Alaska’s Aleutian Islands encountered a Russian vessel in international waters but within the U.S. exclusive economic zone, officials said.
The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley detected the vessel about 30 miles southeast of Amukta Pass on Monday, the Coast Guard said in a statement Friday. A helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak also spotted the vessel.
The ship “was transiting international waters but was still within the United States’ exclusive economic zone,” which extends 200 nautical miles from the U.S. coast, the statement said.
The coast guard vessel did not communicate with the Russian ship but followed it as it moved east, the statement said.
U.S. Coast Guard via AP
“We stood together to ensure there was no disruption to U.S. interests in the maritime environment around Alaska,” Commander Steven Baldovsky, commanding officer of the Alex Haley, said in the statement.
Several similar incidents have occurred in recent months. On July 6, the Coast Guard, during a patrol spotted four Chinese military ships north of Amchitka Pass in the Aleutian Islands in international waters but also in the U.S. exclusive economic zone, officials said.
And on July 24, The US military intercepted Two Russian and two Chinese bombers are flying together in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone. The bombers were intercepted by U.S. and Canadian fighter jets and were not considered a threat, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
A U.S. defense official, however, told CBS News that this was the first time Russian and Chinese aircraft had jointly entered the Alaska ADIZ, a further demonstration of the expanding military cooperation that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said was causing concern at the time.
Although the Alaska ADIZ is considered international airspace, it is defined as an area where U.S. sovereign airspace ends, but “this requires the immediate identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security,” according to NORAD.
In February, the United States detected Four Russian warplanes flying in Alaska’s ADIZ, as well as another Russian military aircraft May 2023.
And in February 2023, Russian warplanes were intercepted there twice in one week. And that same month, a Chinese spy balloon has been detected near Alaska before eventually crossing the American continent and being shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
