NATO ready for Exercise Cold Response in Northern Norway
More than 7000 soldiers from 13 nations will this year participate in Exercise Cold Response. The exercise takes place in Troms and Nordland in Northern Norway between March 16 and 25.
Photo: mil.no
Most of these will be land forces that will be easy to spot in the exercise area. In addition, both naval and air forces will be well represented at the exercise.
Cold Response has traditionally been visited by a great number of special forces. This year, about 700 of the participants are special forces.
The participants will be trained at deploying military quick reaction forces into an area of crisis. They will have to handle situations ranging from high intensity warfare to terror threats and mass demonstrations.
The soldiers will have to find a balance between securing security for the local population and fighting the enemy with military force. The forces will also be trained in an international environment where they will have to communicate with a common language and operate with common procedures.
The scenario for the exercise is that an oil discovery outside Midland at the end of the 1990’s led to a conflict between Midland and Nordland because of the large Nordlandic population in the area where the oil was found. Nordland claimed the right to the oil and the conflict increased in 2008 when Nordland attacked and occupied Midland. After a cease-fire Nordland withdraws its forces and a power vacuum which NATO has to fill, occurred, reports Barents Observer.
Source: mil.no
