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Exercise Cold Response

Cold Response is a NATO exercise sponsored by Norway to allow military personnel to train in extreme, harsh winter conditions. Exercise Cold Response is a regularly scheduled training event designed to enhance joint crisis response capabilities in cold weather environments. The equipment from the Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway, which includes M1A1 main battle tanks, light armored vehicles, amphibious assault vehicles, and other combat vehicles, is drawn from stockpiles stored and meticulously maintained in secure caves throughout central Norway. By participating in multinational exercises, US forces are able to develop and improve valuable relationships with their key allies. These relationships are critical to the ability to conduct combined operations globally in response to crisis situations.

Norway is a leading nation in NATO when it comes to cold weather operations, and has extensive experience in this field. It is therefore natural that Norway is hosting winter exercises such as Cold Response. The main aim of the exercise is to secure the Norwegian Armed Forces and allies' ability to conduct multinational joint exercises with a high-intensity combat scenario in demanding winter conditions. Another important aspect of the exercise is to train the large amphibious capacities. This means practicing how to master the transition between the coast and the shore by, for example, practicing attacking a target on land from ships with the assistance from amphibious assault ships and helicopters.

As a part of the exercise the Norwegian Armed Forces receive allied forces by collaborating with civilian actors through the total defence concept. The concept is the sum of Norways civilian and military resources working together to prevent and manage crisis, armed conflicts and wars. This means that if a serious situation arises, civilian and military forces are mutually interdependent.

Cold weather training exercises have been held in Norway for years. The first Cold Response exercise was held in 2005 and has been held every year since. Due to budget limitations in 2008 the exercise was much smaller and named Frozen Tundra 2008. Cold Response resumed in 2009 and was only held in even numbered years, Frozen Tundra filling in the odd numbered years. Through exercises such as Cold Response the participants are training together in demanding weather conditions in a realistic way. This makes Cold Response an important exercise.

Active duty and Reserve military forces from around the world convened in Northern Norway to participate in Cold Response 2010 Feb. 17 to March 4, 2010. With more than 8,500 military personnel, approximately 1,000 special operations members, and 14 nations represented, it is one of the largest military exercises in Norway. The U.S. Navy forces present were Naval Special Warfare Unit Two, SEAL Team 18, and Special Boat Team 20, along with key personnel from Special Operations Command Europe.

On 12 March 2014, the Warlords of 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division began the annual multinational and multilateral training exercise, Cold Response 2014. The exercise will feature various types of military training including maritime, land and air operations. The location, above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway, provides a unique cold-weather environment for all forces involved to learn and develop procedures from one another. To prepare for the exercise the Warlords spent three days in the field learning to work with the Norwegian Army’s Host Nation Support Battalion, who they worked with during CDR14. The Marines and Norwegian soldiers learned to work together and use the Bandvagn 206, a tracked vehicle used to move troops and equipment over the snow. The Marines also conducted live-fire ranges and a few learned how to drive snow-mobiles for reconnaissance.

In mid-2015, planning began for Exercise Cold Response 16, a cold-weather training exercise involving 12 NATO and partner countries and approximately 16,000 troops. Norway extended an invitation to the U.S. Marines, which was graciously accepted, and the two countries put their heads together to make this year’s exercise one of the largest, in terms of Marine participation, in recent years. One key element of the exercise’s success has been close coordination between Norway and U.S. planners, who have tackled the monumental task of trying to envision the future of this large-scale exercise, anticipate problems ahead of the game and brainstorm potential solutions.

Cold Response 16 incorporated air, land, maritime and cyber domains. This year’s addition of a Combined Joint Task Force, which integrated international military personnel into a single headquarters element coordinating the actions of an aggregated force. Under this structure, Norway’s Brigade North participated as a tactical brigade rather than on its more customary role as a Land Component Command.

The Norwegian Armed Forces conducted exercise Cold Response together with allied and partner nations in March 2020. The winter exercise Cold Response will take place in an area that stretches from the town of Narvik to Finnmark district in northern Norway. The main part of the exercise will be located in the district of Troms. Activities related to the exercise will take place from 2 to 18 March. The field exercise will take place from 12 to 18 March. However, from January there will be visible military activity in some parts of the country, as some of the allied participants arrive in Norway to prepare themselves for the exercise.

As of January 2020, forces from the USA, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark, Finland and Sweden – as well as Norwegian forces – are participating in the exercise. Between 15,000 and 16,000 troops would participate in the exercise. The final number of participants and participating nations might change slightly towards the exercise.

Underwater Construction Team ONE (UCT-1), part of Navy Expeditionary Combat Force Europe-Africa/Task Force (CTF) 68, broke the ice with engineering forces from Norway and the Netherlands, while conducting diving operations at a frozen lake in Skjold, Norway during Exercise Cold Response (ECR) 2020, which will run through mid-March ECR 2020 is a multi-national exercise held in Norway, aimed at retaining and enhancing warfighting skills in a challenging arctic environment.

“UCT-1 is designed for missions in tropical and cold environments. However, this is a unique experience in the arctic that should be exercised often,” said Chief Construction Mechanic Brandon Burrow, assistant officer in charge, UCT-1. “We are here in Norway exercising our required operational capabilities by running underwater hydraulic tools, utilizing weight-handling equipment, practicing emergency procedures and daily setup with our partner nations. Testing our issued gear and dive site setup is totally different in this environment than we are used to.”

With many evolutions taking place, such as dive site set-up, safety checks, emergency evacuation drills, and ice diving operations with 28 personnel in a joint operational environment, communication is key in building and strengthening partnerships, especially when descending into a frozen lake under 63 centimeters of ice.

Operating with the Dutch and Norwegians has allowed us to see what equipment and procedures we can improve on, specifically in these extreme environmental conditions,” said Construction Mechanic 1st Class Nicholas Reid, leading petty officer, UCT-1. “Their lightweight diving systems are half the weight of ours, which is more maneuverable around the dive site and under the ice.”

During the ice diving operations of ECR 2020, UCT-1 had the unique opportunity to strengthen relationships with divers from partner nations while sharing knowledge and experiences during operations. Sustaining alliances of NATO nations is critical to improving capabilities in diving, port damage repair, and hydrographic surveying in an extreme cold weather/ice environment.

“Working with the Americans has given us a lot of new inputs on how to dive in a safe way,” said Senior Sergeant Steinn Mar, diving instructor, Norwegian army. “I can see the advantages of having a bigger dive team compared to my team, which is five Army engineer divers. This allows the U.S. Navy team to man all positions and still have others preparing for the next dive, which allows them to start each ice dive operation faster. It’s great to see we have a lot of the same procedures, which has made it easy to work together during Cold Response.”

In an extreme cold weather environment, with temperatures as low as five degree, and snow accumulation over three feet, engineering forces from the U.S., Norway, and the Netherlands pushed through ice operations for eight days completing all mission requirements of ECR 2020. “This was a very successful week of ice diving, and a great experience to work with our Norwegian and Dutch partners,” said Lt.j.g. Peter Schmillen, officer in charge, UCT-1. “It was a great learning experience seeing the different procedures and techniques for ice diving, and all forces involved can apply lessons learned to improve diving capabilities. UCT-1 Sailors successfully executed the mission, despite the challenging arctic conditions that affected both personnel and equipment.” CTF 68 provides explosive ordnance disposal operations, naval construction, expeditionary security, and theater security efforts in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility.

Norway called off the NATO winter exercises amid growing fears over the spread of coronavirus, according to the Norwegian military. Cold Response 2020 was slated to take place from March 2-18, but on 11 March 2020 Norway pulled the plug on the multi-nation drills over concerns that the exercises could exacerbate the global coronavirus epidemic.