US particular forces are preparing for warfare within the coldest of locations – 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 kind of environments, and Navy SEALs and Particular Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen operators, Inexperienced Berets and elite aviators from the Army, and Air Commandos lately spent virtually a month coaching in it.
Particular operators go Arctic
From late February to mid-March, typical and special-operations models acquired collectively for Arctic Edge 22, the US navy’s flagship Arctic warfare train.
Operators from throughout the US special-operations neighborhood joined typical forces and native, state, and federal law-enforcement in Alaska.
Inexperienced Berets from the tenth Special Forces Group and nineteenth Special Forces Group carried out long-range patrolling utilizing snowshoes and skis alongside the Arctic Ocean and Bering Strait.
The Inexperienced Berets carried out exfiltration coaching with the elite “Evening Stalkers” of the one hundred and sixtieth Particular Operations Aviation Regiment. The Special Forces operators additionally labored with native and federal legislation enforcement in a simulated homeland-defense state of affairs.
On the Navy facet, 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 essential infrastructure.
Probably the most fascinating components of coaching the SEALs did was a free-fall bounce into an ice movement within the Arctic Ocean and hyperlink up with USS Pasadena, a Los Angeles-class assault submarine collaborating within the biennial Ice Train.
Lastly, US Air Drive Air Commandos supplied rotary-wing help to standard models and special-operations parts collaborating within the drills.
The special-operations elements 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 modern methods to not simply survive within the Arctic however thrive within the Arctic,” Satterfield stated in a launch.
Satterfield highlighted that particular operators not solely educated for particular mission units but additionally developed relationships with native communities, together with Alaskan natives, to realize “data from their strategies, practices and procedures on how they succeed within the chilly climate.”
Competing within the Arctic
Because the Arctic turns into extra accessible, it’s taking over renewed significance for US nationwide safety.
Consequently, 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’ll encounter there.
Certainly one of their coaching strategies has been the Particular Operations Winter Mountain Operator Course, which is carried out twice a 12 months in Colorado.
The course is open to all special-operations models however is principally attended by Inexperienced Berets from the tenth Special Forces Group, which has Europe as its space of duty.
True to its title, SOWMOC focuses on mountain and winter warfare. Individuals be taught winter-warfare survival expertise, reminiscent of how you can navigate in snowy situations, and small-unit techniques for an Arctic setting, in addition to how you can infiltrate and exfiltrate winter-warfare environments utilizing skis, snowshoes, and snowmobiles.
The US isn’t the one nation with a safety curiosity within the Arctic, and US particular operators will not be alone of their efforts there.
Particular Operations Command North continues to broaden and strengthen relationships with overseas special-operations models, together with Canadian and Danish commandos.
“Our companions and allies are completely essential and foundational to our mission at SOCNORTH. We prepare and coordinate with Canadian SOF routinely and Danish Particular Operations noticed Arctic Edge this 12 months,” Satterfield stated.
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 in every of 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 nations with Arctic territory.
Amid intensifying competitors with Russia and China, the US navy’s curiosity within the Arctic — and its preparations to struggle there — will solely enhance.
“We wish to companion with allies which have curiosity in defending our lands and approaches within the Arctic. Partnerships are essential in constructing all-domain consciousness throughout US Northern Command’s space of duty,” Satterfield stated.
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.
