Lawmakers Show Concern Over China and Russia Military Exercises Near Alaska Airspace

“The fact that they’re doing joint bomber missions, that’s never happened before,” Sen. Dan Sullivan told NOTUS.

Dan Sullivan
Sen. Dan Sullivan questions Air Force Lt. Gen. Gregory Guillot during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. Stephanie Scarbrough/AP

After China and Russia flew strategic bombers near Alaska airspace this week, lawmakers in Congress began expressing new concerns that the military exercises were a stark escalation in the standoff between the adversary countries and the United States.

“This is a bomber task force … they’ve never done that,” Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska told NOTUS. He said the military exercises were “provocative” and “an escalation” toward the U.S.

He showed NOTUS a picture of a Chinese aircraft that flew close to Alaska airspace, and he noted the danger that those aircraft presented. “That’s a nuclear bomber,” he said.