Special Ops Train To Defend Strategic Aleutian Islands Radar Outpost During All-Out War
Sitting right on Russia's back door, Shemya is home to the Cobra Dane radar and a strategic airfield that would be a prime target during a conflict.
By Tyler Rogoway October 18, 2021
The War Zone
What would arguably be among target number one on American soil during an all-out conflict with a peer state such as China or Russia, Shemya Island sits in the Aleutian Island chain as America's closest stronghold to Russia's eastern flank. It is home to the powerful and now upgraded AN/FPS-108 Cobra Dane early warning and tracking radar used to spot incoming ballistic missile strikes. This, along with a number of other ancillary capabilities it provides, including a 10,000-foot runway and associated airfield infrastructure with plenty of ramp space and an emergency arresting gear system, makes Shemya an extremely important locale that is worth protecting. Training for just such a mission is exactly what is going on right now as part of NORAD's Noble Defender wargames in Alaska.
Shemya was a major player when it came to strategic surveillance during the Cold War. Beyond the Cobra Dane radar installation, detachments of RC-135 surveillance aircraft flew missions from the island throughout the Cold War, with Cobra Ball rocket and missile tracking aircraft standing alert from the unforgiving airfield all the way into the mid-1990s. You can read exactly what this operation was like from someone who flew Cobra Balls from Sheyma in this past feature of ours.
In the intervening post-Cold War years, beyond Cobra Dane radar, listening post, and weather station operations, Shemya was probably best known as an emergency landing strip for stricken airliners and military aircraft flying the northern routes than as a strategic fastness. That is all rapidly changing in the new era of so-called 'great power competition.' The cold truth is that Shemya would likely play a major role during any conflict in the Pacific, even beyond its strategic monitoring duties.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42783/special-ops-train-to-defend-strategic-radar-outpost-in-the-aleutian-islands-during-all-out-war
