The U.S. Coast Guard encountered a Russian ship near the Aleutian Islands on Monday, less than a month after identifying Chinese military vessels in the region.
The Coast Guard said Friday that U.S. Coast Guard cutter Alex Haley had identified a Russian Vishnya-class warship. The Soviet-era vessels were built for intelligence gathering and are equipped with weapons systems, including surface-to-air missile launchers.
The Coast Guard said it spotted the Russian vessel near Atka Island in the central Aleutian Islands. It was in the U.S. exclusive economic zone, a large area that stretches 200 nautical miles off the U.S. coast. The zone is considered international waters, but the U.S. maintains control over resources in the region.
The Alex Haley, one of the Coast Guard’s larger cutters and homeported in Kodiak, followed the Russian vessel as it passed through the region but did not communicate with it.
Haley’s senior officer, Commander Steven Baldovsky, said the crew “took all necessary steps to ensure there was no disruption to U.S. interests.”
Both the Russian and Chinese navies have had a regular presence in the Aleutian Islands in recent years, and the Pentagon is raising the alarm about the two countries’ increased cooperation in the Arctic.
