Alaska
Major new Air Force training center in Alaska will help boost defense of North America
Work will start this summer on a Pentagon “mega-project” in Alaska intended to boost the Air Force’s training capability to defend North America.
The 150,000-square-foot Joint Integrated Test and Training Center at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage will contain 426 computer servers kept running by a 15 million megavolt-ampere electric substation. The project is slated to be completed in 2029 at a cost of up to $500 million.
John Budnik, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the center will allow trainers to sync personnel on the ground with pilots in the air.
“It’s the only place in the Indo-Pacific Command that can host multi-domain simulators for joint and coalition fighters, including F-35s, F-22s, F-15s, F-18s, next-generation fighters, bombers, command and control platforms, intelligence surveillance, reconnaissance aircraft, and long-range weapons fire,” he said.
Thareth Casey, the program manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the training center is being designed so simulations can be adapted to include weapons and aircraft from other U.S. military branches, as well as NATO allies Canada, Finland, Sweden and others.
Air Force Col. Lisa Mabbutt, commander of the 673d Air Base Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, said the training center’s location underlines the importance of Alaska and the Arctic to the U.S.
“It demonstrates a commitment to Alaska as both a key power-projection platform and one of our nation’s leading edges of homeland defense,” Mabbutt said.
While the long, warmer days of summer have allowed military and commercial ships to take advantage of new sea lanes, the training center has to be built to withstand the seasonal flipside: winter, with its minus-20 temperatures and days where sunset comes a little over five hours after sunrise.
Casey, the project manager, said construction has its challenges.
To keep the elements outside from impacting the work inside, the center will be built with a reinforced concrete foundation, steel-frame-insulated wall panels covered in masonry, and a steel-reinforced metal roof.
Construction will accelerate during the long, warmer summer days when the sun can be out for 20 hours. It will slow down during the cold, dark winters.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind project,” Casey said. “We’re constrained by the seasons but with planning, we expect to complete work by the fall of 2029.”
Despite a steady stream of reports about Russian and Chinese joint sea and air operations in the region, the U.S. commands that will be the primary users of the training center declined to specify which nations the training will focus on as possible aggressors.
A query to the 11th Air Force in Alaska was passed to Air Force headquarters at the Pentagon, which passed it to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii — which then passed it back to the 11th Air Force.
But political and military officials have made it clear in earlier statements that the focus will be on training to react to potential threats from Russia and China.
Former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and top officers such as Air Force Gen. Anthony J. Cotton, head of Strategic Command, helped popularize the term “near-peer adversary,” a nation with a large military force approaching — it not reaching — equivalence with the United States. The term was most frequently shorthand for Russia. Cotton said in 2023 that Russia, which has about 5,900 nuclear warheads, was a “near peer adversary.”
The other term often used is “pacing challenge” — a country that is building up its military at a rapid rate. A 2023 Pentagon statement said the planned training center at Elmendorf-Richardson would allow “our warfighters to train against our pacing challenge in realistic threat scenarios.”
“China is the only country that can pose a systemic challenge to the United States in the sense of challenging us, economically, technologically, politically and militarily,” Colin Kahl, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy, said in 2023.
Kahl said being a pacing challenge didn’t mean the U.S. had to go to war with China.
“It does mean that we will have a more competitive and, at times, … adversarial relationship with Beijing,” he said.
Russia’s northern border is adjacent to the Arctic Ocean. From czars to Stalin to Putin, it has operated in the region for centuries.
China is a relative newcomer. Though 900 miles from the Arctic Circle, China in 2018 officially declared itself an “near-Arctic state” intent on becoming a “great polar power” by 2030.
In October 2024, a U.S. Coast Guard HC-130J long-range surveillance plane spotted Russian and Chinese ships operating together near the Bering Strait, the sea passage between Alaska and Russia that is just 55 miles wide at its closest point. Last year, American and Canadian fighters were scrambled to intercept Russian and Chinese long-range reconnaissance aircraft flying near the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), a U.S.-designated 150-mile buffer zone from U.S. territory.
Katherine Dahlstrand, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington, D.C., think tank, said Russia and China see the same military and commercial opportunities as the United States and its allies.
“The Arctic is a new transit space for military assets,” Dahlstrand said. “The potential for shorter trade routes around the world using northern passages would be revolutionary for many countries,” she said. “It draws a lot of interest. The area also has energy resources, fishing, and mining.”
Dahlstrand said putting the training center in Alaska and practicing scenarios for defending the region is an investment that will pay off in the future.
“The Arctic spans the globe and is a connector of regions — European, Indo-Pacific, and North America,” Dahlstrand said. “For the United States, it’s also homeland security.”
Southcentral Alaska’s largest natural gas utility said Tuesday it might not have the gas to make it through this winter. That’s after state regulators last Wednesday denied Enstar’s request that would’ve expanded natural gas storage in Kenai, as the region faces a looming natural gas shortage.
Enstar president John Sims said it’s “not looking good” for the utility’s more than 150,000 Southcentral customers heading into the cold, winter months.
“Just to be very blunt, we need additional production in order to make it through this winter,” Sims said. “We are kind of turning over every stone possible and trying to find more gas resources.”
In the order, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska wrote they were “unsure about the timing of the need for additional natural gas storage capacity, including insertion and withdrawal capacity.”
Enstar proposed developing and operating a depleted reservoir known as the Kenai Loop Pool that is currently leased and operated by AIX Energy, LLC., to store gas to use during the colder months.
The utility was seeking an “advanced determination” from RCA that it was prudent, which would allow the project to unlock financing for development, the order says. In its original filing, Enstar said that the project would help ensure there are enough supplies to meet the needs of its customers.
A search for other options
The commission denied the utility’s request in a 17-page order last Wednesday, saying the Department of Natural Resources hadn’t determined if the facility was capable of serving as a gas storage facility. Hilcorp has a competing application for the same storage facility, the order said.
The RCA didn’t respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.
The facility would hold 25 billion cubic feet of gas, which Sims said is appropriately sized for the current supply needs and future natural gas imports.
“The other benefit of having this storage facility right now is we can go to Furie, AIX, to all the small producers and even Hilcorp and say, ‘Hey, whatever volume of gas you produce, I can buy it.’ And I can store that into this storage facility for later use,” he said.
Longer term, utilities are looking to import natural gas, which would impose an unavoidable price increase to thousands of households and businesses. Legislators are currently in negotiations over a multibillion-dollar property tax break for the developer of the Alaska LNG project, Glenfarne. But it’s unknown if, or when, that project will be built.
According to the order, Enstar’s Kenai storage project garnered support from DNR, multiple state legislators and other regional electric utilities. However, some Anchorage-based property management companies said it was “inappropriate” for ratepayers to bear the cost of the project. The project’s $240 million price tag would’ve increased bills for customers by $10 to $12 per month, according to the filing.
Sims said Enstar is filing a petition for the reconsideration of the ruling next week.
“Just in case the commission denies that request, yes, we are looking at other storage options,” he said. “Unfortunately, based on our analysis that we did before we filed with the commission, those options appear to be more expensive.”
Sims said he’s hoping production and storage ramps up, but if it doesn’t, he said the utility may need to ask customers this winter to conserve supplies by lowering their thermostats.
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This story was originally published by Alaska Public Media and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Alaska
ICE: Alaska state attorney arrested by immigration officials, held in Tacoma detention center
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Shucheng “Charlie” Yang, 32, a Chinese national and attorney with the Alaska Department of Law, on July 10 in Anchorage, according to an ICE spokesperson.
ICE said Yang violated the terms of his admission and is a “deportable alien.”
He is currently being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, pending immigration proceedings.
Yang pled no contest to a speeding ticket he was cited for on May 22. There are no other charges against him listed in the Alaska court system.
Yang is the most recent person in Alaska to be taken into ICE custody at the Tacoma processing center; a Mexican woman living in Soldotna was deported along with her three children in February.
His arrest also comes days after a Colombian man was shot and killed by a federal immigration officer earlier this week in Maine, fueling a new wave of protests against perceived ICE brutality.
State outlines hiring process
The Alaska Department of Administration responded to general questions about verifying employment eligibility for all full-time hires and said the state requires applicants to self-disclose their employment eligibility during the application process.
“The State of Alaska hires individuals who have the legal right to work in the United States,” Policy Advisor Kate Sheehan said. “This employment eligibility is confirmed through the federally mandated I-9 verification process.”
Yang is listed as Department of Law civil attorney on the State of Alaska employee directory.
Agencies decline to comment on Yang
Both the Alaska Department of Law and the Office of Gov. Mike Dunleavy declined to address Yang’s employment status or arrest.
“As a practice, the Department of Law does not provide comments on personnel issues,” Information Officer Sam Curtis said.
“We do not comment on personnel issues,” Deputy Press Secretary Grant Robinson said.
Alaska’s News Source is reaching out to Yang through multiple channels while he remains detained in Tacoma.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The National Science Foundation has selected the University of Alaska Fairbanks to be the site of a new critical minerals research program, making it one of 12 new technology innovation centers across the nation that received federal funding, according to Yereth Rosen with the Alaska Beacon.
The new Critical Minerals Accelerator Engine in Alaska will receive $15 million in funding for two years and up to $160 million over 10 years, the university said on Tuesday.
The organization will be located at and led by UAF’s Geophysical Institute and will work with more than 40 partners, said Steve Masterman, the university faculty member who helped lead the application for the award. Partners include private companies, Native corporations, nonprofits, other universities and other entities, said Masterman, who formerly served as Alaska’s state geologist.
UAF already conducts scientific research into minerals considered critical to the nation’s economy through its Critical Minerals Collaborative. That program is more scientific and academic-focused, said Masterman, who is its deputy director.
In contrast, the Critical Minerals Accelerator Engine will be focused on putting research to use, determining ways to commercialize resources, addressing supply needs, workforce development and other issues important to the critical minerals industry.
Though the scientific research already conducted at UAF will be helpful, the accelerator idea is industry-focused, Masterman said.
“This is quite different because it’s an economic development project,” he said.
Alaska is rich in resources considered critical minerals. The state has 56 of the 60 minerals classified by the U.S. Geological Survey as critical to the nation’s economy, UAF said in its statement.
In addition to the Alaska award, the NSF on Tuesday announced its awards for other innovation engines in different parts of the nation. The sites have different primary purposes, such as disaster prevention and mitigation, robotics development and development of advanced information technologies.
The Alaska innovation engine will be led by Lee Ann Munk, a faculty member at the Geophysical Institute and a geosciences professor at UAF’s College of Natural Science and Mathematics. Munk is currently director of the Critical Minerals Collaborative at UAF.
“Our NSF Engine is built on the simple but ambitious idea that Alaska can lead the nation not only with the abundance of its critical mineral resources, but also in how we innovate, develop and deploy the technologies needed to produce them responsibly,” Munk said in a statement released by the university.
“By bringing together researchers, Alaska Native organizations, industry, workforce partners, state and federal agencies, national laboratories and communities, we are creating an engine that accelerates discovery into action,” she said.
Editor’s note: This story was republished with permission from the Alaska Beacon.
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Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.
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