C.G. Kodiak Plane Spots Russian, Chinese Vessels

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Category: News

Created on Tuesday, 01 October 2024 15:28

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By Sentinel Staff
The U.S. Coast Guard on a routine patrol Saturday located two Russian Border Guard vessels and two from the Chinese Coast Guard on a joint patrol, but the Coast Guard said today that all the vessels were in Russia’s exclusive economic zone, some 440 miles southwest of St. Lawrence Island.
The Coast Guard said today that this is the northernmost location that the U.S. has seen Chinese Coast Guard vessels.
The four ships were transiting in formation in a northeastern direction, and stayed about five miles inside the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone. They were spotted by an Air Station Kodiak HC-130J Super Hercules plane on a regular patrol of the maritime boundary between the United States and Russia, in the Bering Sea.
“This recent activity demonstrates the increased interest in the Arctic by our strategic competitors,” Rear Adm. Megan Dean, commander of the 17th Coast Guard District, said in a news release. “The demand for Coast Guard services across the region continues to grow, requiring continuous investment in our capabilities to meet our strategic competitors’ presence and fulfill our statutory missions across an expanding operational area.”
     The Air Station Kodiak C-130 was part of Operation Frontier Sentinel, which is an operation “designed to meet presence with presence when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters,” the Coast Guard said.