As new Cold War looms, Alaska resumes its strategic role in defense

Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan told state legislators in Juneau that Alaskans must push President Joe Biden’s administration to give a final approval to ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil project on the North Slope and to uphold work done by the Trump administration on an industrial access road to an area where copper mines are being explored in Northwest Alaska.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has given a tentative okay on Willow but a final decision has yet to be made and opponents to the project, mostly national conservation groups, have mounted a fierce campaign to convince the president to change the BLM’s recommended approval.

On the proposed Ambler Access Project, a 211-mile industrial road planned to facilitate development of copper deposits in the western Brooks Range, is now subject to possible revisions of its prior permits and approvals under former President Donald Trump.

Copper is a strategic metal used important for high technologies and the nation’s transformation to renewable energy. Sullivan also took the opportunity, in his annual address to the Legislature, to underscore the importance of a military buildup in Alaska that can counter Russia’s designs in the Arctic.

The senator recalled the important role Alaska played during the Cold War when a hostile Soviet Union stood just a few miles from U.S. territory across the Bering Strait.

With Russia once again hostile and aggressive, and still just across the Bering Strait, Alaska has again assumed its Cold War-era role.

“We are the cornerstone of missile defense for the whole country, we are the hub of air combat power for the Arctic and the Asia-Pacific, and we are a vital strategic platform for elite expeditionary forces,” Sullivan told legislators, who were meeting in a joint-session.

The “standup” of the U.S. Army 11th Airborne Division in Alaska last year is hugely important, according to Sullivan.

“Now we have an entire Army Airborne Division—one of only two paratrooper divisions in the entire U.S. military—stationed right here in Alaska. The 11th Airborne has a proud and storied history, first activated during World War II for the liberation of the Philippines and the occupation of Japan," Sullivan said. "The core unit of the 11th Airborne is the former 5,000-person, airborne, 4th Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division—what we call the 4/25... It wasn’t too long ago that our very own Department of Defense saw the Arctic as a strategic backwater: there was no strategy and a there was a Pentagon focus on shutting down bases and units here in Alaska [including the 4/25th and with a major downsizing of Eielson Air Force Base]."

Now, all of that has changed. With the standing up of the 11th Airborne Division in our state, a critical transformation of America’s Arctic strategy has occurred.

"Here is what’s. really exciting about this: just two weeks ago, I met with the Vice Chief of Staff for the U.S. Army, and he told me that the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska is now the number one duty selection station for soldiers in the U.S. Army. That is a big deal,” Sullivan said.

However, there are challenges, the senator warned.

“The very high number of tragic suicides our military in Alaska has had has broken all of our hearts. I’ve heard from so many on this issue. The numbers are astronomically high, particularly in the Interior," Sullivan said. "We’ve done much to address this, including passing legislation to improve the quality of life for our military. But, for those of you who have served in the military, you know, nothing is more important for the well-being of our troops than being part of a unit with high morale and high unit pride—and that is now happening in the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska."

On related defense issues, “Alaska is also now home for the Department of Defense’s newest regional security center, the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies, and real, substantial progress has been made on our nation’s first critical deep-water Arctic port in Nome, and we are getting an icebreaker home-ported right here in Juneau, Alaska. That is going to happen. ‘With all of these advancements, Alaska has rightly earned our place as the center of gravity for America's Arctic security operations and Arctic economic opportunities,” Sullivan said.