(Bloomberg) -- The US for the first time tracked Russian and Chinese bombers flying together off the coast of Alaska, but it’s “not a surprise to us,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday.
The defense chief said that US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command followed the planes “very closely” but they stayed in international airspace, some 200 miles (322 kilometers) off the coast of Alaska.
Norad said in a statement Wednesday that the bombers, two from Russia and two from China, were “not seen as a threat.”
Nonetheless, the US has expressed concern about China’s growing interest in the Arctic region and its expanding cooperation with Russia, including for its war in Ukraine.
In announcing a new Arctic strategy this week, the Defense Department said the US will expand its military readiness and surveillance in the Arctic given the Chinese and Russian interest coupled with new risks brought on by accelerating climate change.
Measures are needed “to ensure the Arctic does not become a strategic blind spot” as melting ice makes the region more accessible economically and militarily, according to the Defense Department’s 2024 Arctic Strategy released Monday.
The Pentagon also said it needs better modeling and forecasting of the rapidly changing environment to prepare for potential combat in increasingly unpredictable conditions so far north.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
