In a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), endorsed reopening the shuttered Adak Naval Air Station in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and increasing the operability of the nearby Eareckson Air Station.
“We should reopen Adak, and we should enhance the ability to operate out of Eareckson.” Paparo’s support came in response to questions posed by Sen. Dan Sullivan, who has long pushed to reopen Adak as part of the larger build-up of U.S. military assets in Alaska.
“It is a further western point which would enable, along with Eareckson, an opportunity to gain time and distance on any force capability that’s looking to penetrate. Russia’s Pacific Fleet frequently takes the Great Circle route through Alaska. It would enable up to ten times the maritime patrol reconnaissance aircraft coverage of that key and increasingly contested space.” Admiral Paparo said.
In his exchange with Admiral Paparo, Sen. Sullivan highlighted Adak’s strategic location and extensive existing defense infrastructure, including three piers, two 8,000-foot runways, an airplane hangar, and one of the world’s largest fuel storage depots.
The U.S. Navy recently sent an assessment team to the base.
Sen. Sullivan warned that, in recent years, Chinese companies, in addition to the U.S. military, have also expressed interest in Adak.
“It’s a Chinese shipping company that is certainly, in my view, a front company for the PLA. How embarrassing would it be to the Pentagon or the Navy—these guys would never do it; the Aleut Corporation is all patriotic—but let’s assume they weren’t, and somehow they signed a 100-year lease with a Chinese shipping company that is always out there looking at Adak.” Said Sen. Sullivan.
NORTHCOM commander General Gregory Guillot also endorsed reopening the Adak base in a February SASC hearing.
The U.S. Navy is compiling cost estimates for a report on various reopening scenarios for the base, which is expected to be finalized towards the end of April.
Admiral Paparo also testified that this summer, Adak will be used as part of the Northern Edge exercise, a premier joint training exercise across the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and often military forces from allied nations.