Some U.S. forces stationed in Europe will head north March 2 to participate in Cold Response 2020, a biennial exercise hosted by Norway focusing mostly on operations at the tactical level in cold-weather environments. "All U.S. military services will participate to sharpen our military capabilities and allied cooperation in high-intensity warfighting in a challenging Arctic environment with rugged terrain and extreme cold weather," Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Patrick J. Hermesmann, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa, said yesterday during a news conference at NATO headquarters in Belgium. Between 15,000 and 16,000 service members from the U.S., Norway, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark, Finland and Sweden are expected to participate in Cold Response 2020, said Norwegian Rear Adm. Sverre Engeness.
This is "an exercise designed for and focused on the tactical units," Engeness said. "They are the primary training audience."
He said the exercise will predominantly involve land and amphibious forces, but sea and air forces also will participate.
While the exercise has been in the planning stages for months, the
units at the lowest levels will not get a real sense of that planning,
he said. Instead, he explained, "they will have all the challenges they
require for tactical interoperability and integration and so forth."
Hermesmann said Cold Response 2020 will exercise the ability of
American forces to deploy large numbers of service members inside Europe
in support of NATO allies and European partners.
"By aggressively training and conducting these realistic exercises in
some extremely harsh environments, these participating U.S. forces,
alongside forces from Norway and allies and partners, will hone their
lethal skills, fine-tune their interoperability, nurture key working
relationships and acclimate to the challenges posed by fighting in
extreme cold and in rugged mountainous terrain," Hermesmann said.
While the U.S. military has areas available for cold-weather training, Hermesmann said, the environment in Norway is unlike anything else on Earth. But that's not the only reason the U.S. wants to participate in Cold Response, he said.
"We have a critical ally, which is the Norwegian military and
Norwegian people. For those reasons, that's why we are here in Norway,"
he said. "Exercises such as Cold Response 2020 exhibit the capabilities
and cooperation, the strength and steadfast commitment, as well as the
determination and dedication of the U.S. and allied and partner nations
have for maintaining the secure and stable Arctic."
The Cold Response 2020 exercise takes place in an area of northern Norway that stretches from the town of Narvik to the Finnmark district. The main part of the exercise will be located in the district of Troms.