Washington [US], September 18: The US military has deployed a unit of 130 soldiers along with mobile rocket launchers to an uninhabited island in the Aleutian chain west of Alaska as Russia increases military activity around it.
The move comes after eight Russian military aircraft and four Russian naval vessels, including two submarines, approached Alaska last week.
No enemy aircraft entered U.S. airspace during the incident. However, naval vessels, including submarines, entered a buffer zone off the coast of Alaska while avoiding icebergs, according to CBS News citing a statement from the U.S. Coast Guard on September 17.
In response to the developments, the US Army announced that it was sending troops to Shemya Island, about 1,200 miles from Anchorage. The island is uninhabited and the US Air Force still maintains an air station that dates back to World War II. The deployed army unit brought two High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).
Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska also said that the US military also deployed a guided missile destroyer and a US Coast Guard ship to the waters west of Alaska while Russia and China conducted a military exercise called " Ocean-24 " in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans from September 10.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said it had detected and tracked Russian military aircraft around Alaska for four consecutive days. A total of two aircraft appeared in the area continuously from September 11 to 15.
Aircraft operating in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, an area outside U.S. airspace but within U.S. airspace, require aircraft to publicly identify themselves.
Russia has not yet responded to a request for comment on the above information.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper