Commander Islands: U.S. Proposal Aims to Boost Strategic Surveillance in the Aleutians
The Commander Islands are at the center of a bold strategic vision proposed by Lt. Col. Jeffery M. Fritz, who advocates for the U.S. to purchase the islands from Russia. In a compelling op-ed, he frames the acquisition as a vital step toward enhancing American maritime surveillance, particularly against the growing presence of Chinese submarines in the North Pacific.
The Commander Islands, part of the Russian Far East, lie just west of the U.S.-controlled Aleutian chain. Strategically positioned between Russia and Alaska, these islands offer a commanding view of key naval chokepoints and submarine transit routes in the Bering Sea and North Pacific.
Fritz argues that reunifying the Aleutian and Commander archipelagos under U.S. control would restore a coherent maritime buffer zone, similar to Cold War-era forward basing strategies. The purchase, though diplomatically complex, could extend U.S. early warning and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) reach in the increasingly contested Indo-Pacific maritime domain.
With China expanding its naval footprint, including regular submarine patrols in deepwater Pacific corridors, the Commander Islands could serve as a critical listening post; hosting radar, sonar arrays, and rapid-response units. Beyond defense, the islands also hold ecological and resource value, potentially reinforcing U.S. Arctic strategy.
Though purely hypothetical for now, the Commander Islands proposal underscores growing concerns about strategic geography in a multipolar world. Whether symbolic or serious, the idea places the Commander Islands back into U.S. military thought, and global conversation.
