Chairman, Senate Armed Services (SASC) Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support

Senator Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska

Responsibilities

Once again, the Republican senator from Alaska is leading the Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, which is given responsibility for military readiness across the DoD including: training, logistics and maintenance-related issues; military and housing construction; privatization; base realignment and closure; defense energy and environmental programs; conventional ammunition procurement; National Defense Stockpile; RDT&E infrastructure; and defense industrial base policies.
The subcommittee is a solid constituency fit for Sullivan, a longtime proponent of “arctic readiness.” Alaska’s latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates give this US arctic state its military value, along with access to the Arctic Ocean and its sea lanes and natural resources.
In mid 2024, Alaska-based F-16s and F-35s along with Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 fighters intercepted the first joint Russian and Chinese bomber task force to enter America’s Air Defense Identification Zone off the Alaskan coast. Four months later, the Air Force announced that it would redistribute four KC-135 refueling aircraft to Alaskan Eielson Air Force Base.

Quote

“I recently delivered my annual address to the legislature in Juneau,” wrote Sullivan in April 2025, “[and] spoke about the success we’ve had in continuing our military build-up, including the possibility of re-opening the US Navy base in Adak, to counter the unprecedented number of Russian and Chinese incursions near our air and waters.”
Adak is located roughly 1,200 air miles from Anchorage. The western Aleutian island’s military base has been closed since 1997.
Alaska has a network of nine military bases including Fort Wainwright and Fort Richardson. The Navy and Marine Corps do not have any permanent bases there.

Committees

Chair of the Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support and the Subcommittee on Coast Guard, Maritime, and Fisheries.
Serves on: Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Committee on Environment and Public Works; Committee on Veterans’ Affairs; Subcommittee on Seapower; Subcommittee on Airland; Subcommittee on Chemical Safety, Waste Management; Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water; and the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, among others.

Military

Served in the Marine Corps (active duty) from 1993 to 1997, and in the Marine Corps, retiring in 2024 as a colonel. Held a variety of command and staff billets, both on active duty and in the reserves, some of which are listed below:
TRAP (tactical recovery of aircraft personnel) force commander and 81mm mortar platoon commander, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable); Weapons Company executive officer, Second Battalion, Fifth Marines; commanding officer, Delta Company, Anti-Terrorism Battalion; executive officer, Echo Company, Fourth Reconnaissance Battalion; and commanding officer, 6th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company; deployed to Afghanistan as executive officer of the 4th Marine Division’s Anti-Terrism Battalion in 2013.
Recalled to active duty in 2004, serving as a staff officer to Gen. John Abizaidat of US Central Command, deployed in the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and Central Asia.

Political/Professional Career

Elected to the US Senate in 2014; reelected in 2020.
Attorney general and commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, from 2010 to 2013.
Assistant secretary of state for Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the George W. Bush administration, from 2006 to 2009.
Director of the International Economics Directorate of the National Security Council and White House National Economic Council staff, from 2002 to 2004.
Lawyer for the Anchorage office of Perkins Coie, LLP, focusing on corporate law and commercial litigation, from 2000 to 2002.

Education

Personal

Daniel Scott Sullivan was born on Nov.13, 1964, to Thomas and Sandra Sullivan. He grew up in Fairview Park, OH. His father was president and CEO of RPM International, a manufacturing company established in 1947 by Daniel’s grandfather, Frank Sullivan.
He and his wife Julie, were married in 1994 in her hometown of Fairbanks. They have three daughters.