US Army deploys ‘Arctic Angels’ soldiers to remote part of Alaska amid Russian exercises

CNN —

US Army soldiers were deployed to a remote island southeast of Alaska last week as part of a “force protection operation” amid an expected increase in Russian and Chinese military exercises in the region, according to an Army statement.

The North American Aerospace Defense command (NORAD) intercepted Russian military aircraft flying near Alaska four times over the last week as Russia conducted military exercises in the area.

The Army sent elements of the 11th Airborne Division to Shemya Island, Alaska on September 12 in response to the planned drills as a show of “ready, lethal force,” according to the Army statement. The division is known as the Arctic Angels and they are normally stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Fort Wainwright in Alaska.

“As the number of adversarial exercises increases around Alaska and throughout the region, including June’s joint Russian-Chinese bomber patrol, the operation to Shemya Island demonstrates the division’s ability to respond to events in the Indo-Pacific or across the globe, with a ready, lethal force within hours,” said Maj. Gen. Joseph Hilbert, commanding general of the 11th Airborne Division.

So far, the Russian aircraft has not entered US or Canadian sovereign airspace, NORAD said, but the Pentagon has been tracking the exercises.

“These activities are not unusual and are not seen as a threat,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said on Monday. “The US has been tracking these planned exercises for some time, and they pose no threat to the US homeland or the NATO alliance.”

Though the new US deployment is not a sign of a significant escalation in tensions, relations with the US’ two main military adversaries remains fraught, particularly as the