The Navy has promised greater visibility along its Alaska coastline after an incident earlier this year that saw Russian warships and aircraft take part in military exercises off the coastline.
“Russia has re-militarized the Arctic,” Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a Wednesday hearing on Navy and Marine Corps readiness.
“It should be an alarm to all of Americans, as an Arctic nation, that we should have a more formidable presence to ensure rule of law and freedom of the seas in that part of the world,” he added.
Braithwaite, making one of his first appearances before Congress after his May swearing-in, promised “a tailored maritime presence” and “lethality” in response to Russian provocation.
Alaskan Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, chairman of the readiness and management support subcommittee, made the most forceful statements about the threat Russia poses near Alaska and across the Arctic.
“Russia has accelerated its provocative encounters in the North Pacific, harassing American fishing vessels in U.S. waters, sending bombers towards Alaska’s shores,” Sullivan said.
Braithwaite knows Russia’s behavior all too well. As ambassador to Norway before his appointment as Navy secretary, he had a front seat to frequent incursions by Russia into the North Sea.
The Navy secretary also told senators that the United States can no longer operate under the assumption that NATO’s flanks are secure and the “Russian fleet is tied to the pier.”
To prevent Russia from laying claim to Arctic waters, Braithwaite also promised a “visible presence,” beyond submarines, in the Arctic and noted a recent freedom of navigation mission by the USS John McCain in the Bay of Peter the Great.
Braithwaite also said the Navy will release a new Arctic strategy in short order.
“The United States Navy, the United States Marine Corps, senator, is committed, to being present in the Arctic in a much more visible way than we’ve historically been,” Braithwaite promised. “Power projection, sea control, and the ability to ensure to our partners and allies and to our own people that we, the United States Navy, have that first and foremost in our minds.”
