The Navy League’s on-line magazine, Seapower, reports,
While patrolling the Aleutian Islands, the crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley (WMEC 39) detected the vessel 30 nautical miles southeast of Amukta Pass, Alaska.
The Russian vessel was transiting in international waters but inside the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from the U.S. shoreline. The Alex Haley did not communicate with the Russian vessel. The Alex Haley confirmed it to be a Russian Federation Vishnya-class naval vessel and followed the vessel as it transited east. An HC-130 air crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak also observed the vessel.
The Vishnya class are intelligence gathering ships completed in the late 1980s, like the one pictured above.
The detection was made 30 miles SE of Amukta Pass (52°27′31″N 172°00′55″W). This is well East of Eareckson Air Force Base (52°42′44″N 174°06′49″E) on Shemya and the former US Naval Air Facility, Adak (51°52′41″N 176°38′46″W).
Distances from Dutch Harbor (53°54′10.5″N 166°31′06.2″W):
- Shemya 802 miles
- Adak 446 miles
- Amukta Pass 242 miles
The report seems to say that Haley simply stumbled across this Russian vessel. This suggests that it had been inside the US EEZ for at least two days before it was detected. That probably is not something to get excited about, but there may, of course, be more to this than we are aware.
USCGC Alex Haley moored in Nome, AK.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
Doesn’t seem like a great time to have a limited presence in the Arctic… I just saw a report of Healy suffering a fire and returning home on one engine:
https://gcaptain.com/u-s-coast-guard-arctic-presence-goes-up-in-smoke-as-icebreaker-healy-suffers-fire/
Would be interested in your thoughts on the potential impact to USCG operations.
The US government considers the Bering Sea part of the Arctic, but really it is not. The Northern most tip of Bering Sea and the Arctic Circle intersect at the Bering Strait.
Coast Guard patrols in the Bering Sea (normally along the Aleutians) don’t normally require an icebreaker, and there was no icebreaker with this Russian research ship, which was South of the Aleutians or with the Russian and Chinese warships we have seen occasionally in the US Alaskan EEZ near the Aleutians. They were not in ice covered waters.
The Coast Guard has sent National Security Cutters North through the Bering Strait during months when the ice was at it minimum. I don’t think the Navy has sent a surface warship through the Bering Strait in Decades.
Most of what Healy does seems to be research.
In 2012 it escorted a Russian flagged tanker through 300 miles of ice to bring fuel to Nome, near the Northern end of the Bering Sea.
In 2020, Healy had an engine casualty and was not able to recover research buoys. A smaller less capable Norwegian Coast Guard vessel, Svalbard, stepped up and recovered the buoys for the US.
It is never good to lose the use of a ship, especially one as unique as Healy, but while we may lose a years’ worth of research, it is unlikely the loss will be felt in SAR or Law Enforcement.
Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley crew returns from 75-day Arctic Ocean patrol
D17 Public Affairs
KODIAK, Alaska — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley (WMEC 39) returned to their home port in Kodiak, Oct. 4, following a 75-day patrol in the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean.
The crew intercepted a Russian Federation naval vessel transiting the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, conducted domestic fisheries along the Aleutian Islands, and provided search and rescue coverage to the Bering Sea.
Their law enforcement team boarded 22 vessels, issued 27 safety and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fishery violations, and terminated the voyage of two vessels for hazardous and unsafe conditions.
The Alex Haley crew also completed a successful gunnery exercise, as well as flight operations with MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews from Air Station Kodiak.
Over the course of their patrol, the crew operated as far as 72 degrees north to the summer ice edge in the Arctic Ocean and 172 degrees east to Attu, the most westerly island of the Aleutian Islands chain, with visits to Adak and Nome.
The crew earned the Arctic Service Medal for providing 21 days of presence and search and rescue coverage above the Arctic Circle. (emphasis applied–Chuck)
The Alex Haley, nicknamed “The Bulldog of the Bering,” is a 282-foot medium endurance cutter that performs search and rescue, fisheries law enforcement, and maritime security across Alaska. The cutter has been homeported in Kodiak since 1999 and was the recipient of the 2023 Captain Hopley Yeaton Cutter of the Year Award (Medium) and a 2024 International Maritime Organization Honour for Exceptional Bravery at Sea.