- US special-operations forces ventured to Alaska in February to coach for Arctic warfare.
- Their journey displays the US army’s growing give attention to the Arctic, which is rising extra accessible.
- The US is not the one nation with an curiosity in Arctic safety, and US operators aren’t alone there.
With near-peer warfare again on the agenda, US particular operators are focusing their coaching on environments the place they’re extremely more likely to discover themselves engaged.
The frigid Arctic is a type of environments, and Navy SEALs and Particular Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen operators, Inexperienced Berets and elite aviators from the Army, and Air Commandos just lately spent virtually a month coaching in it.
Particular operators go Arctic
US Army/Employees Sgt. Anthony Bryant
From late February to mid-March, standard and special-operations models received collectively for Arctic Edge 22, the US army’s flagship Arctic warfare train.
Operators from throughout the US special-operations neighborhood joined standard forces and native, state, and federal law-enforcement in Alaska.
Inexperienced Berets from the tenth Special Forces Group and nineteenth Special Forces Group performed long-range patrolling utilizing snowshoes and skis alongside the Arctic Ocean and Bering Strait.
The Inexperienced Berets performed exfiltration coaching with the elite “Evening Stalkers” of the a hundred and sixtieth Particular Operations Aviation Regiment. The Special Forces operators additionally labored with native and federal regulation enforcement in a simulated homeland-defense situation.
On the Navy aspect, the SEALs honed their Arctic survival expertise and carried out special-reconnaissance coaching. Navy SWCC operators additionally labored with Coast Guard commandos and practiced defending important infrastructure.
US Navy/MCS2 Trey Hutcheson
One of the vital fascinating components of coaching the SEALs did was a free-fall bounce into an ice circulate within the Arctic Ocean and hyperlink up with USS Pasadena, a Los Angeles-class assault submarine participating within the biennial Ice Train.
Lastly, US Air Drive Air Commandos supplied rotary-wing help to standard models and special-operations components participating within the drills.
The special-operations points of the train was overseen by US Particular Operations Command North, led by Brig. Gen. Shawn Satterfield.
“Particular Operations Forces examined tools and checked out progressive methods to not simply survive within the Arctic however thrive within the Arctic,” Satterfield mentioned in a launch.
Satterfield highlighted that particular operators not solely skilled for particular mission units but in addition developed relationships with native communities, together with Alaskan natives, to realize “information from their strategies, practices and procedures on how they succeed within the chilly climate.”
Competing within the Arctic
US Army/Employees Sgt. Anthony Bryant
Because the Arctic turns into extra accessible, it’s taking up renewed significance for US nationwide safety.
In consequence, US particular operations have been coaching contained in the area and out of doors of it as a way to get extra conversant in the situations they are going to encounter there.
One in all their coaching strategies has been the Particular Operations Winter Mountain Operator Course, which is performed twice a 12 months in Colorado.
The course is open to all special-operations models however is especially attended by Inexperienced Berets from the tenth Special Forces Group, which has Europe as its space of accountability.
US Army/Employees Sgt. Travis Fontane
True to its title, SOWMOC focuses on mountain and winter warfare. Individuals be taught winter-warfare survival expertise, equivalent to navigate in snowy situations, and small-unit ways for an Arctic setting, in addition to infiltrate and exfiltrate winter-warfare environments utilizing skis, snowshoes, and snowmobiles.
The US will not be the one nation with a safety curiosity within the Arctic, and US particular operators are usually not alone of their efforts there.
Particular Operations Command North continues to develop and strengthen relationships with international special-operations models, together with Canadian and Danish commandos.
“Our companions and allies are completely important and foundational to our mission at SOCNORTH. We practice and coordinate with Canadian SOF routinely and Danish Particular Operations noticed Arctic Edge this 12 months,” Satterfield mentioned.
US Air Drive/Senior Airman Joseph P. LeVeille
The wealthy sources and extra direct maritime routes within the Arctic Circle and the melting ice that’s making them extra accessible are turning the Arctic prime geopolitical actual property.
The US shares the area with six shut allies and companions — Canada, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland — and one among its main foes, Russia. China has additionally proven curiosity within the area, describing itself as a “near-Arctic” state and sending observers to conferences of the Arctic Council, which is made up of these eight international locations with Arctic territory.
Amid intensifying competitors with Russia and China, the US army’s curiosity within the Arctic — and its preparations to battle there — will solely enhance.
“We need to accomplice with allies which have curiosity in defending our lands and approaches within the Arctic. Partnerships are important in constructing all-domain consciousness throughout US Northern Command’s space of accountability,” Satterfield mentioned.
Stavros Atlamazoglou is a protection journalist specializing in particular operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (nationwide service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins College graduate.
