An Alaska Air National Guard pilot pilots a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) from the tail of a C-17 Globemaster III after landing on Shemya Island, Alaska, Sept. 12, 2024. (Brandon Vasquez/US Army)

Parts of three army units have been deployed to Shemya Island off the coast of Alaska in response to recent Russian and Chinese air and sea probes in the Arctic region, army officials said.

Elements of the 11th Airborne Division and the 1st and 3rd Multi Domain Task Forces landed on Shemya Island in the Aleutian Islands on Thursday. The 2.7-mile-wide island lies 1,200 miles west of Anchorage in the Alaska Islands archipelago.

The unit consists of around 130 soldiers, said John Pennell, a spokesman for the 11th Airborne Division. That corresponds to an Army combat infantry company.

Maj. Gen. Joseph Hilbert, commanding general of the 11th Airborne Division, which is headquartered at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage, said the move – along with other Air Force actions – was a show of force in light of recent military activities by Russia and China in the Arctic.

“As the number of adversary exercises increases in Alaska and throughout the region, including the joint Russian-Chinese bomber patrol in June, the operation on Shemya Island demonstrates the division’s ability to respond to events in the Indo-Pacific or around the world and provide a ready, lethal force within hours,” Hilbert said in a statement released Friday.

Radar is located at Eareckson Air Station on Shemya Island, Alaska. (North American Aerospace Defense Command)

The troops deployed included units from Elmendorf-Richardson and Fort Wainwright, the northernmost garrison of the 11th Airborne Division, Army officials said. The forces include a highly mobile artillery rocket system, known as HIMARS, which fires ballistic missiles.

The Space Force also operates a long-range radar at Eareckson Air Station on Shemya Island. The radar is primarily designed to detect and monitor Russian, Chinese and other intercontinental ballistic missile launches and tests.

The deployment of the 11th Airborne Division came after two Russian IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft were observed in Alaska’s air defense identification zone on Saturday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said.

While the Russian planes were outside U.S. and Canadian airspace, they were flying in the Alaska zone, where international aircraft must identify themselves to the U.S. This zone, however, has not been recognized in any formal agreement with Russia.

The surveillance flight is one of several conducted by the Russian military in recent months that have bypassed international borders and drawn the attention of the United States and its allies.

In another similar incident, Russian patrol planes circled Japan on Thursday for the first time in five years, according to a statement from Japan’s General Staff. The Russian Tu-124, which is primarily a transport aircraft, flew over Okinawa, where the U.S. maintains military troops.

In addition, on August 26, Japanese fighter jets were alerted to intercept a Chinese Y-9 surveillance aircraft that entered Japanese airspace south of Kyushu, the first such incursion by a Chinese military aircraft.

In July, Moscow sent two long-range Tu-95MS Bear-H missile-armed aircraft, which can be used for reconnaissance, anti-ship warfare and bombing, on a 10-hour flight between Japan and South Korea.

Russia and China are increasingly cooperating in military exercises. The recent Ocean 24 exercise saw ships and aircraft deployed simultaneously in the Arctic, Sea of ​​Japan, Mediterranean, Caspian, Baltic and Caspian Seas. The exercise involved 90,000 troops, 400 ships and submarines.

The 11th Airborne Division’s statement on the deployment to Shemya Island said that Russian and Chinese activities in the Arctic have increased in recent years as climate change has opened up sea routes in the far north.

The Arctic is also considered the northern edge of the Indo-Pacific region, which extends to China and Southeast Asia to the south and to the eastern edge of the Indian subcontinent to the west, “an area that represents 50% of the world’s population,” according to the 11th Airborne Division.