NATO allies and partners will soon hold massive war games in the European Arctic involving the US Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 8, the country’s mission to the military bloc has said. The reminder comes amid tensions with Russia over NATO’s enlargement on the continent, which Moscow considers a threat to its national security.
The Cold Response is scheduled to launch in March and will bring together “35,000 soldiers from 28 nations,” the American mission tweeted on Wednesday.
Cold Response is a series of Norway-led NATO drills held every two years since 2006. The previous one scheduled for March 2020 was intended to be relatively small-scale and was canceled at the last minute due to Covid-19 risks.
The drill set to be held in Norway this year pales in comparison with the Trident Juncture 2018 maneuvers, which were the largest in the country since the Cold War era. The latter was held under joint NATO command and not directed by the host nation, so Cold Response 2022 is set to be the largest Norway-led exercise in decades. It was initially expected to have an even bigger scale, with up to 45,000 troops participating, but the plans changed due to natural reasons, including the pandemic situation, local media reported.