HONOLULU (KHON2) — The U.S. military is tracking a Russian vessel near Hawaiian waters, according to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

In a statement, a US Indo-Pacific Command spokeswoman told KHON2:

“US Indo-Pacific Command regularly monitors air and sea traffic in the Western Pacific to ensure the security and stability of the region alongside our allies and partners. As part of our normal day-to-day operations, we closely monitor all vessels in the Indo-Pacific area of ​​operations through maritime patrol aircraft, surface vessels and joint capabilities…I can tell you that we are monitoring a Russian surface vessel operating in international waters in the vicinity of Hawaii.

A retired Marine lieutenant colonel said it wasn’t exactly uncommon to see him, but he was coming to the attention of the military because of the war in Ukraine.

“I have no doubt that Indo-PACOM is watching this closely, as are a number of other intelligence organizations trying to figure out exactly what this is,” retired Lt. Col. Hal Kempfer said. “They’re not just monitoring the ship, they’re monitoring anything that might be connected and getting real details about what it’s doing, why it might be there, who they report to. All of these things go into a merging process, an analytical process if you will that tells us whether it’s a threat or whether it’s not a threat.

Kempfer added that during the Cold War, Soviet intelligence ships would loiter near Hawaii and that Russia used tactics similar to those of the Cold War-era Soviets in general.

“The tactics, techniques and procedures that we saw the Soviets do during the Cold War seem to be resurfacing under the Russian banner,” Kempfer said. “It sounds like one of those issues that I would point out to Russian intelligence vessels potentially off Hawaii.”