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.