Finnish defense forces sent an urgent message: we are invaded. We need help.
Hundreds of American troops – part of a new Arctic division – embarked on Fairbanks, Alaska. Their flight took over the North Pole and landed at Rovaniemi airport, in northern Finland. The soldiers quickly unpimated their M-4 assault rifles, rocket tubes and the strap-powered machine guns and deployed in the peaceful snowy forests, dressed with arctic whites and steam-proof boots.
This was all just a drill, launched in mid -February. But it is believed that the scenario is always as possible. While climate change dissolves the ice through the Arctic, this part of the world, once so remote and forgotten, is becoming more accessible and more contested. The main soldiers of the world – American, Russians, Chinese and European – all train for a winter war.
“It has really been only the last five or six years that everyone has gone from global war to terrorism,” said Robert McBride, a Canadian brigade general who helps to supervise the war game.
“Arctic nations are starting to understand the strategic importance,” he said. “The Arctic has now become pre -eminence.”
The recent drill took place in a strange moment in global affairs. President Trump moved away from NATO and put himself in AM
But on this frozen ground, at least, American military cooperation and the perception of Russia as an extended threat seemed unchanged.
In Finland, which fought the Soviet Union during the Second World War, Russia remains the enemy once and future. “There is an old Finnish saying”, explained Janne Kuusela, an official of the Finnish defense, “Russia will take what is not nailed to the wall”.
The American relationship with Finland, one of the most recent members of NATO, seems solid. President Trump recently played golf with his president, Alexander Stubb. Subsequently he praised Mr. Stubc’s golf skills and said: “I can’t wait to strengthen the partnership”.
The two sides worked well together during the battle in the snow. The Finns were agile attackers, zigzag through the woods on long and narrow skis. The Americans created machine guns on small round hills and scarabocchi on the snow. Both parties said that the arctic war was different.
“It’s a bit like operating in space,” said Christopher Brawley, American colonel.
“Nobody comes to help you,” he said. “And the environment will kill you.”
The cardinal rule remains dry. Jackson Crittes Videman, a Finnish soldier, told a grueling test that Finnish soldiers must pass. With all their equipment, including skis, they dive through an ice hole cut in a river and have to escape – without freezing or drowning.
The day he did was less than 36 degrees Celsius (about 33 Fahrenheit). He had about two minutes to remove the soaked clothes and change new ones before the Frostbite started. And his hands stopped working.
“Your friends must help you with hinges,” he explained.
Mr. Crittes Videman, who is in the middle of Finnish, a half -American half, was enrolled in the Finnish army a few months ago. Finland is one of the few western democracies with mandatory conscription. It is a country with a small population, 5.6 million, and the longest border of NATO with Russia – 830 miles – and recently increased the expense for defense.
Finnish defense experts say that tens of thousands of Russian troops were based near that border but were decimated in the Ukrainian war. The Finns believe they will take five to 10 years before becoming a threat again. Before the Ukrainian war, the Finns affirm, Russia was investing in its arctic forces, modifying the tanks to operate better in the cold and designing new troop transporters.
The United States did the same. In 2022, he designated the eleventh air, based in Alaska, as the first and only Arctic division. The division is experimenting with new uniforms and different combat skiing.
During the exercise, the Americans showed a new traced vehicle that made their way to ice slopes, some quite steep. The soldiers lived with special rations for the cold, higher in calories, due to all the energy emptied by the attempt to stay warm.
The war during the Arctic summer is not much simpler. First of all, there is the problem of the sun. He never sets himself. So the advantage that night vision equipment offers western military is eliminated.
When the ice melts, the earth becomes incredibly soft. The upper Finland, for example, is covered by thick forests, small mountains, swamps, rivers, lakes and swamps, making navigation very difficult. In many ways, it is easier to move in winter.
During the war match, the attackers exploited frozen rivers such as motorways. The soldiers escaped through them, pistols tied on the back. The commanders seemed satisfied with the exercise and particularly happy not to mention politics.
When he was asked if he was worried about the cordiality of Mr. Trump with Russia, Sami-Antti Takamaa, a Finnish general, said: “He doesn’t worry me at all”.
“The American aerial division has just arrived from Alaska,” he said. “This is what matters for me.”