U.S. military top brass look to reopen strategic base on the Aleutians

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A decommissioned naval base in Adak is receiving attention, as Senator Dan Sullivan says there is interest in reopening it.

“Absolutely, we need to open the base at Adak, Alaska,” Sullivan told Alaska’s News Source, quoting the Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Paparo, Jr.

Paparo testified in front of the Armed Services Committee on Thursday, a committee Sullivan sits on.

“In the hearing, I pressed him,” Sullivan said. “He agreed with me on how strategic [the Adak base] was. He’s the INDOPACOM commander.”

“The NORTHCOM (U.S. Northern Command) commander came out about four weeks ago in a hearing, said we got to reopen the base in Alaska,” he said. “The CNO of the Navy, that’s the Chief of Naval Operations, he came to see me and briefed me about a team that they sent last week to Adak, to look at reopening the plan to reopen. They’re supposed to have the plan to me inside of two weeks ... This is a huge deal.”

In Thursday’s hearing, Paparo mirrored Sullivan’s sentiments on Adak, pointing to its global geographic position.

“Senator, it is a further western point which would enable, along with Eareckson (air station near Attu), an opportunity to gain time and distance on any force capability that’s looking to penetrate,” Paparo said. “Russia’s Pacific Fleet in Russia 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.”

Sullivan says the base is 1,000 miles west of Honolulu. Adak, with a population of 171, according to the 2020 census, is the westernmost municipality in the U.S.

Sullivan pointed to Adak’s capabilities and asked Paparo to commit to formulating a plan to open the former naval base, a commitment the INDOPACOM commander made.

“[Adak] has three piers, two 8,000 ft. runways, a big hangar, 22 million gallons of fuel storage — one of the biggest fuel storage depots anywhere on the planet Earth,” Sullivan stated. “The CNO just sent a team up there — Navy, State of Alaska, the Aleut Corporation."

Sullivan said that he’s been working on reopening the base in Adak for roughly ten years. He’s disappointed that the base closed in the early ‘90s to begin with.

“[The base] was closed in the 1990s when we had the peace dividend and everybody thought the world was going to be safe and the end of history, you remember all that, and they started BRACing (Base Realignment and Closure). That’s the military term for shutting down bases around the country, and they shut this one down,” he said.

“I have it on good authority that the Chinese shipping companies have come out to the owners of Adak, maybe once a year, saying, ‘hey, we’d be interested in that base,‘” Sullivan said. “Of course, that’s probably a front for the Chinese Navy. So I pressed the Admiral [Thursday], said ‘Admiral, how embarrassing would that be if the Navy let this incredible - just look at the map, how strategic this piece of terrain is - to have the Chinese there.‘”

There’s interest from the State of Alaska and the Aleut Corporation, according to Sullivan. In terms of funding, the senator said he is trying to get this in the budget reconciliation bill soon, but says having the U.S. military’s top brass’ support will go a long way.

“With all the Russian and Chinese activity in the North Pacific and the Arctic — particularly both in terms of joint naval task forces by the Russians and Chinese and joint strategic bomber task forces by the Russians and Chinese in our waters and in our air — this is a really important strategic piece of real estate that now we can set up subs, surface warfare ships and aircraft to jump them when they’re coming into our territory much, much quicker,” Sullivan explained.

The senator said he should hear more on the plans to re-open Adak within the next two weeks.

Alaska’s News Source has reached out to the Aleut Corporation for comment but has not heard back at the time of publication.

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