US deploys ‘Arctic Angels’ troops to remote Alaska amid COVID-19

CNN

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

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) intercepted Russian military aircraft flying near Alaska on four occasions last week as Russia conducted military exercises in the area.

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

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

So far, Russian aircraft have not entered U.S. or Canadian sovereign airspace, Norad said, but the Pentagon has been monitoring the exercises.

“These activities are not unusual and are not considered a threat,” Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said Monday. “The U.S. has been tracking these planned exercises for some time, and they do not pose any threat to the U.S. homeland or the NATO alliance.”

While the new U.S. deployment does not signal a significant escalation of tensions, relations with America’s two main military adversaries remain strained, particularly as the Ukraine war continues. And while the Biden administration has worked to resume high-level communications with China, including among military leaders, Beijing remains America’s main military competitor.

Managing relations with both nations will be a key challenge regardless of who wins the presidential election in November.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump has hinted that he will take a different approach than the Biden-Harris administration, suggesting he will resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine when he takes office.

And earlier this week, he suggested that China and Russia are not necessarily adversaries of the United States.

“I don’t know if they are enemies,” he said Monday, suggesting that if elected he would get along “very well” with both countries.

Speaking at X Spaces about the launch of a new cryptocurrency business, Trump was asked if he thought there was “a force out to get” him following the apparent second assassination attempt.

“Well, you have a radical left force. And we have forces, you know, I say we have a lot of evil in the world.

“The world is a nasty place, and you can see that by some of the things that have happened. We’ve been treated, I think, very unfairly, but I’ve done very well. It’s an amazing country in some ways, but we have evil forces,” Trump said.

The former president continued: “You have outside forces with enemies, and you know, you call them Russia, China, various places, I don’t know if they are enemies. I think we will get along very well with China. I think we will get along very well with Russia. I want Russia to come to an agreement with Ukraine and stop this.”