The U.S. Marine Corps continues to upgrade its prepositioning in Norwegian caves near NATO’s external border to Russia at a time when European countries worry about the security environment.
Around 16,000 troops from 13 countries are wrapping up the biennial Cold Response exercise in Norway, which ran between Feb. 19 and March 22. The program, which includes an 11-day exercise just a few hundred miles from NATO’s external border to Russia, is meant to prepare troops for combat operations in cold weather situations. It is also an opportunity to test the U.S. Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway, which was recently updated.
Marines have had a prepositioning agreement with the Norwegian government since 1981. It was originally meant to bolster NATO’s defenses against the Soviet Union, but has continued to be updated at the request of both the U.S. and Norway.
“They provide a significant investment of their own funds to maintain that force,” Brig. Gen. Robert Castellvi, commander of II Marine Expeditionary Brigade, said of the cooperation with the Norwegians in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation. “I think it’s important for them to know that we can respond to a crisis.”
In large caves at the northern edge of civilization, Norwegian and U.S. personnel look after enough equipment to support 15,000 Marines for 30 days.
The agreement was expanded in 2014 to add a number of vehicles, including M1 battle tanks, tank retrievers, armor breaching vehicles and amphibious assault vehicles. These types of agreements are years, sometimes decades in the making. Nevertheless, the timing was fortuitous: Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, and conducted aggressive military action in east Ukraine.
U.S. Marine Corps amphibious assault vehicles before a public “splash” demonstration in the Trondheim Fjord in Norway, Jan. 10. (Master Sgt. Chad McMeen/U.S. Marine Corps)
The choice of location, and size of the exercise, may seem like strategic move to deter Russia, but Castellvi maintains it is rather meant to enhance the Corps’ response time. In the event of a crisis anywhere on the continent, as well as the Middle East, prepositioned equipment eliminates the time it takes to deploy and equip troops from domestic locations. Otherwise, the Pentagon would have to ship the vehicles across the Atlantic. Instead, the Pentagon and, by extension, NATO can use rail transportation to quickly access various locations across Europe.
“Just think of how long it takes for a cargo ship to go from the continental United States in transit across the Atlantic and into the Baltics or anywhere else in Europe,” Castellvi said.
Castellvi said joint exercises such Cold Response demonstrate a “commitment to self-defense and collective defense.” The exercise comes at time when European countries are increasingly worried about external threats. Failure to cooperate on the migrant crisis has further created the largest division the European Union has seen in decades. What little defense resources some of these countries have go to controlling borders, rather than enhancing outward-facing military strength.
“This is not in response of any current event we have going on,” Castellvi told TheDCNF. “It does come at a very critical moment when many of our allies and partners are concerned about the broader European security environment and the ability to have the alliance work together.”
Norway is one of the allies that worries about Castellvia’s “critical moment.” Despite its modest size of just 20,000 troops, it’s under NATO’s collective protection of “high-quality armed forces and benefits from a modern command structure,” according to a February report from Atlantic Council on the strength of European defense.
Norwegian spokesperson for the Chief of Defense, Lt. Col. Eystein Kvarving, said the Norwegian defense concept “relies heavily on NATO,” and the prepositioning agreement with the Marines.
“We have a dedicated host nation battalion as we call it,” Kvarving told TheDCNF. “Together with the U.S. military, we make sure that the equipment is maintained and ready to be used.”
While much of Russia’s aggression has been targeted at Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula, Norway’s geopolitical location, and border to Russia, continues to define its defense planning.
Modernizations of the Russian armed forces and their increased willingness to use force to meet political motives are driving factors of concern for Norway, according to Kvarving. The country has become vulnerable to Russia’s growing inventory of long-range, precision guided weapons, as well as the Kremlin’s offensive cyber and electronic warfare capabilities.
“What we would call the ‘warning time’ that we would have earlier in order to prepare for our own military has gone down drastically,” Kvarving told TheDCNF. “We need to shorten our response times and we need to modernize part of our military in order to meet new threats.”
There are currently no major conflicts between Russia and Norway in the region. The two work closely to manage resources in the High North, a geographical area within the Arctic Circle. But Russia is concentrating more of its forces in this area as part of its strategy of deterrence.
“I think one issue that perhaps isn’t getting as much attention as it should is Norway’s concern about Maritime security and increased Russian presence both in the Norwegian Sea and in the North Atlantic,” Jorge Benitez, director of NATOSource, said in an interview with TheDCNF.
Benitez is referring to the so-called GIUK Gap, the area between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom. It is also close to Norway’s Atlantic coast, which makes a strong naval presence from NATO essential to Norwegian security.
“There is much more aggressive presence of Russian submarines in that area, at levels we’ve not seen since the Cold War,” Benitez told TheDCNF. “It’s a significant threat that’s been getting some attention in the military circles, but needs to get more attention from the political circles.”
Cold Response 16 is a way for the troops to knock the frost off and test 6,500 pieces of equipment in Norway’s cold maritime conditions.
Royal Marines are inserted by a U.S. Marine Corps CH-53 helicopter near Namsos, Norway, during the final training of Exercise Cold Response 2016. (U.S. Marine Forces Europe and Africa/Facebook)
“We use this operations and these exercises as a way to get in the caves, update the gear, replace the gear,” Castellvi told TheDCNF. “We put a lot of rolling stock in there, about 400 pieces. It gives us better tactical mobility.”
Below-zero temperatures are completely foreign to many troops. Several aspects of combat — from preparation to mobility and endurance — are compromised in such conditions. Movement on cross-country skis and “drifting” of M1 tanks on ice are just some of the exercises on the schedule.
WATCH:
Fast and Furious Tank Drifting———-Have you ever seen a tank drift?Our Norwegian Hæren friends showed us how to drive M1A1 Abrams and Amphibious Assault Vehicles on ice in Rena, Norway. Catch all the #AlliedStrong action at http://bit.ly/articslap
Posted by U.S. Marine Forces Europe and Africa on Wednesday, February 17, 2016
The training will also prove useful in hot conditions, Castellvi says, when the same sort of attention to detail is needed.
“It’s movement, it’s the mobilities that are the biggest challenges,” Castellvi said. “Survival is a challenge and the ability to command and control.”
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