With growing strategic threats from China and Russia, longtime allies Japan and the United States are increasing their focus on the Aleutian Islands and the wider North Pacific as the Arctic-Pacific region becomes an increasingly contested theater.
A surge in Sino-Russian naval and air activity near the U.S. state of Alaska has highlighted the region’s importance and spurred tighter defense coordination, analysts say.
Tokyo and Washington are seeking to address “an increasingly interconnected and multidomain Russia-China axis,” Joshua Bowes, an associate research fellow with the Millenium Project, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, told FORUM.
Beijing and Moscow have staged large-scale exercises across the Arctic and Pacific, with an August 2025 joint patrol crossing the Sea of Japan and transiting La Perouse Strait between Japan and Russia, according to USNI News, a publication of the U.S. Naval Institute. The regimes’ annual war games have encompassed anti-submarine warfare, air defense and expanded paramilitary coordination.
In September 2025, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force tracked a People’s Liberation Army Navy surveillance ship transiting the Tsushima Strait between Japan and South Korea to the Sea of Japan, Tokyo’s Defense Ministry stated.
In July 2024, Chinese and Russian bombers flew within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone. Canadian and U.S. fighter aircraft from the North American Aerospace Defense Command tracked and intercepted the bombers off the Alaskan coast.
The U.S. is considering expanding its presence in the Aleutians. Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, has called for reopening Adak Naval Air Station and increasing the operability of Eareckson Air Station on nearby Shemya Island, citing their value for intercepting incursions and expanding maritime domain awareness. The moves would enable patrol aircraft deployments vital to anti-submarine and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations.
U.S. forces deployed to Shemya in September 2024 for force projection operations, highlighting the region’s role as a forward defense line. “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.
Bowes noted the islands’ geographical and strategic relevance. “The Aleutians, a chain of over 300 islands and islets, provides a key disposition for the U.S.-Japan alliance to counter adversarial operations,” he said. “In effect, the islands enable anti-submarine warfare and ballistic missile defense operations, holding Chinese and Russian submarines and maritime vessels in a key choke point.”
Tokyo, meanwhile, is reshaping its northern defense posture as part of its national security strategy. Japan plans to acquire up to 400 U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles for its destroyers, extending their strike range to 1,600 kilometers.
Long-term strategic integration includes missile defense cooperation. The U.S. Department of War recently tested its Long-Range Discrimination Radar in Alaska, which can detect intercontinental ballistic missiles from China and Russia and could become a sensor for the Golden Dome missile defense initiative.
“By integrating a renewed northern defense strategy, the partnership proves that it is adaptive to shifting geopolitical currents,” Bowes said.
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