Military

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said it’s imperative that Congress deliver aid to help Israel fight Hamas in the Gaza strip. But she insists that the money for Israel must be bundled with money to help Ukraine and Taiwan, and to secure the U.S. border with Mexico.

Murkowski said the U.S. has to defend its global allies against authoritarian regimes — China, which is threatening Taiwan; Russia, which is waging war on Ukraine; and Iran, the sponsor of Hamas.

“We don’t have the luxury of one crisis at a time,” she said in an interview outside the Senate chamber Tuesday.

If the United States fails to step up to the challenge in any one area, Murkowski said, it invites all authoritarian adversaries to take advantage. They shouldn’t think that America can only focus on the latest threat, she said.

“Or even worse: that we’re only going to be good in our words of support, but fail to carry through with actual meaningful support,” she said. “It is a moment for them to seize and we cannot — we cannot — allow them that moment to seize.”

She agreed with the main message Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered Tuesday to the Senate Appropriations Committee. He urged senators not to split up a $105 billion aid bill to address the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, China’s threats in the Indo-Pacific and better security at the U.S.-Mexico border. Blinken said America’s response sends a message to its adversaries.

“If we start to peel off pieces of this package, they will see that,” he said. “They will understand that we are playing whack-a-mole, while they cooperate increasingly and pose an ever greater threat to our security as well as allies and partners.”

Blinken’s testimony was repeatedly interrupted by protestors drawing attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and demanding a ceasefire.

Murkowski said the civilians of Gaza deserve much more aid than is getting through so far, but she said it’s difficult to ensure that Hamas isn’t diverting the food, water and fuel to further its violence. Hamas, she said, is using innocent people of Gaza as “human shields” and figuring that their suffering will serve them as a recruitment tool.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan also supports a multi-pronged security package. That puts the Alaska senators in agreement with the White House and Senate leaders of both parties. But aid for Ukraine isn’t popular among right-wing Republicans, particularly in the House.

House Speaker Mike Johnson proposes a stand-alone bill to help Israel, and he would offset the $14 billion cost by cutting money from the Internal Revenue Service.

Murkowski said that may be politically advantageous to some members of Congress, but she said cutting from tax collection doesn’t really save money.

Two Fort Wainwright-based soldiers were killed and a dozen others were injured Monday in a military vehicle crash near Salcha.

John Pennell, a spokesman for the Army’s 11th Airborne Division, said the two soldiers who died were among 17 in a tactical vehicle that crashed on the way to the Army’s Yukon Training Area on Monday morning.

“There was a driver and assistant driver, and then 15 soldiers were traveling in the back in the transport area, and at some point the vehicle left the road and turned over,” Pennell said.

According to an Army statement, the injured were transported by road and air to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. Pennell said two of the more seriously hurt were subsequently flown to Anchorage.

He says the names of the soldiers killed in the crash will be withheld, pending notification of their families.

Alaska State Troopers, the North Pole Fire Department and Eielson Air Force Base assisted in the response.

An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the crash, which occurred as the season’s first snow fell across the region.

The Russian military is running naval exercises in the Bering Sea this month, and the U.S. Coast Guard is keeping watch.

The Coast Guard cutter Kimball is patrolling an area along the U.S./Russia Maritime Boundary Line as Russian vessels perform various tactical exercises.

On Friday, the Russians launched a missile approximately 600 miles northwest of Dutch Harbor.

Rear Adm. Megan Dean, a representative from the Coast Guard, said in a statement the exercises are lawful, but said the Coast Guard “will continue to ensure there are no disruptions to U.S. interests or commerce in the maritime environment around Alaska.”

The U.S. Department of Defense issued a warning for the area that will remain in effect through Sunday.

A military jet intercepted a small civilian plane over Anchorage Monday, after it entered restricted airspace during President Joe Biden’s visit.

An F-16 fighter jet launched flares to get the pilot’s attention shortly before noon, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Soon afterward, Biden spoke at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson to mark 22 years since the 9/11 terror attacks as he returned from a diplomatic trip to Asia.

The Anchorage Daily News reported Anchorage residents described the small civilian plane as a Piper PA-18 Super Cub that appeared to have tundra tires. NORAD said the plane was escorted to a nearby airport.

A NORAD spokesperson, Canadian Army Capt. Alexandra Hejduk, said Tuesday morning that two jets intercepted the plane. Both were based at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, but were flying over Anchorage on Monday to enforce temporary flight restrictions during Biden’s visit.

Hejduk said that pilots are responsible for reading notices to airmen, or NOTAMs, informing them of restrictions like the ones in place Monday. But Bush pilots can sometimes miss them.

She called Monday’s intercept a teaching moment for pilots to “remember and to read their NOTAMs, and to pass it on to their friends and colleagues, especially if they’re out in the Bush hunting or fishing.”

Few additional details were available by Tuesday morning about the plane or the pilot.

Hejduk deferred questions about the intercepted plane to the Federal Aviation Administration. FAA officials referred questions to the U.S. Secret Service, which didn’t immediately respond to a Tuesday request for comment.

President Joe Biden led a memorial at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage Monday on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. He described that day, 22 years ago.

“My fellow Americans, September 11, 2001 tested our strength, our resolve and our courage,” Biden said. “The billowing smoke and ash, the dark and the clear blue sky that September day. Those shredded steel concrete slabs that rained down from the World Trade Center. The plume of fire that shot up in the sky and Pentagon.”

Biden stopped at JBER on his way back from the G20 summit in India and a diplomatic visit to Vietnam.

He spoke for more than 15 minutes in a hangar filled with Alaska-based military members and their families, as well as more than a dozen politicians and policymakers, including Gov. Mike Dunleavy, U.S. Congresswoman Mary Peltola and Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson.

The president said though JBER was thousands of miles away from the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the distance “did not dull or diminish the pain.”

“We know that on this day, 22 years ago from this base, we were scrambled on high alert to escort planes through the airspace,” the president said. “Alaskan communities opened their doors to stranded passengers. American flags sold out in every store, were placed in front of seemingly every home.”

Biden decried terrorism — not only foreign, but domestic and ideological violence as well. He also used the remembrance to call for national unity.

“That’s how we truly honor those we lost on 9/11,” Biden said. “By remembering what we can do together. To remember what was destroyed, what we repaired. What was threatened, that we fortified. What was attacked, and an indomitable American spirit prevailed over all of it.”

Biden’s stop in Anchorage comes five days after his administration canceled oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a move blasted by Alaska’s congressional delegation and Gov. Dunleavy. In the president’s remarks, he sought to find some common ground with the Republican governor: their hometown.

“We’re both from Scranton, Pennsylvania,” Biden said. “I wish I had him playing in my high school ball club when I was playing. I could’ve been an All-American having you in front of me.”

Dunleavy spoke before the president, and while he didn’t mention ANWR, he did note Alaska’s strategic military position in the world.

“Parts of Alaska are just 2.4 miles away from one of our nearest neighbors, Russia,” Dunleavy said. “Servicemen and women here at JBER intercept Russian fighters on a regular basis. Alaska is also within reach of Korean missiles, and Chinese warships ply the waters just off our coast.”

Rep. Peltola spoke ahead of the president’s remarks as well. While she also didn’t mention ANWR, she spoke about resource extraction in Alaska broadly, calling Alaska energy, “one of our nation’s best defenses against foreign aggression.”

“Today our president is returning from meeting partners in Asia, who seek independence from the influence of authoritarian states,” Peltola said, “and see Alaska’s resources as a means of achieving their own freedom, showing that America remains a beacon of hope around the world.”

After his remarks, the president shook hands with audience members for nearly an hour before departing on Air Force One back to Washington, D.C.

Watch the full remarks:

Federal officials have selected a contractor to install and operate a small, self-contained nuclear power plant at Eielson Air Force Base. The contract is subject to clearing regulatory hurdles, but if all goes according to plan, the microreactor will be up and running within five years.

Assistant Air Force Secretary Ravi Chaudhary announced the selection of a Silicon Valley-based firm as its prospective contractor for the Eielson microreactor during a Thursday meeting in Schaible Auditorium at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“I am super proud to announce the notice of intent toward selection of our first microreactor technology to Oklo Incorporated,” Chaudhary said.

The announcement marked a milestone in a process that began a nearly three years ago, when the Air Force announced its intention to site a microreactor at Eielson. The contract won’t be awarded until the process is completed and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission issues a license. But Oklo special projects senior director John Hanson says his company is ready to go.

“We’re extremely excited to be here,” he said. “We’re honored to be selected for this project, and really excited to get started.”

Eielson 354^th Fighter Wing commander Col. Paul Townsend says base personnel also are enthusiastic about the pilot project.

“Team Eielson is happy to partnership with these individuals to move this forward,” he said in an interview after the event. “It’s an exciting time.”

Townsend said the microreactor will help the 354^th, which flies and maintains advanced F-35 jet fighters, to accomplish its mission. He says the technology that’s led to development of the small, self-contained reactor serves as an example of the kind of innovation that Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown says is essential to maintaining military superiority in the 21^st century.

“General Brown tells us ‘Accelerate, change or lose,’ and we’re definitely leaning forward to help accelerate change and bring a tremendous capability to the state of Alaska,” Townsend said.

Chaudhary emphasized the microreactor’s ability to provide reliable energy without producing climate-changing carbon emissions. He’s the assistant Air Force secretary who oversees of the service’s energy, installations and environment issues. He said Eielson was chosen for the pilot project in part because of its strategic location in Alaska, from which the two squadrons of F-35s can quickly get to trouble spots in the Indo-Pacific region and elsewhere.

“You have an energy source — local, within the installation — that allows you to get those two critical fighter squadrons in the air and executing their business, executing their mission,” he said.

Chaudhary says the 5-megawatt facility would provide energy resilience in the form of backup power for the base’s 72-year-old coal-fired heat and power plant. And because Eielson also buys electricity from Golden Valley Electric Association, the microreactor would allow the base to unplug from the grid in case the utility came under cyber-attack.

“So having redundant systems is critical to that mission,” he said.

Besides providing backup power, Chaudhary said it also will enable the Defense Department to learn how the system could be used at other installations. Eielson is the first U.S. military installation to get a commercialized and licensed microreactor. The pilot project was mandated in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. And he says it will benefit the state of Alaska.

“This will the first state that can actually hold a license,” Chaudhary said, “and that’s no small task, to hold a state and federal license for the execution and operation of a microreactor.”

But before it goes online, Oklo must complete the microreactor licensing process. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Safety and Licensing Project Manager Stephen Philpott says that likely won’t be done ‘til the end of 2026. The company could begin testing the facility the following year and unless problems arise, the system could begin operating in 2028.