US Military Leaders Urge Revival of Remote Alaskan Base

Senior U.S. military officials have called for the revival of a remote base in Alaska to monitor Russian and Chinese ambitions in the region.

Adak Island, a former naval air facility (NAF) in the Aleutian Islands chain, is located approximately 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. It also sits halfway between mainland Alaska and Russia.

Adak is the southernmost town in America's northernmost state and the westernmost municipality in the U.S.

Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, recently told Senate Armed Services Committee members that Adak should be reopened. U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command's Gen. Gregory Guillot previously had said the same.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, asked Paparo why reopening Adak is important.

"Senator, it is a further western point which would enable, and along with Eareckson [Air Station on Shemya Island], in order to gain time and distance on any force capability that is looking to penetrate," the admiral said. "Russia's Pacific fleet in Russia frequently takes that Great Circle route through Alaska."

"And it would enable up to 10X the maritime patrol reconnaissance aircraft coverage of that key and increasingly … contested space."

Used by the U.S. during World War II to launch offensives against the Japanese, Adak Island later became a naval base and was used for submarine surveillance during the Cold War.

According to Sullivan, the base remains largely intact, with three piers, two 8,000-ft runways, a hangar and 22 million gallons of fuel storage, Task & Purpose reported.

Dr. Barry Erdman, a retired foot surgeon who served at Adak Island while in the Marine Corps during the Cold War, said the island's remote location made it "a hardship duty station for service members assigned there."

"Many Navy personnel called it, 'The Rock,' given the volcanic nature, and it was also well known as 'The Birthplace of the Winds,'" Erdman wrote for the Marine Corps Association.

In September, the U.S. military moved about 130 soldiers along with mobile rocket launchers to Shemya Island, some 1,200 miles from Anchorage, where the U.S. Air Force maintains an air station that dates back to World War II. The action was done amid an increase in Russian military planes and vessels approaching American territory.

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