NATO is not ready for a brutal Arctic war with Vladimir Putin, analysts have warned.
Despite massive Nato drills in the region, troops will struggle to survive war in the freezing wilderness, they said.
The Jaeger Brigade is ultimate Arctic warfare force[/caption]
US and Finnish special forces train together in the Arctic circle[/caption]
Estonian troops join US and other Nato forces training in Finland[/caption]
The Arctic security experts at the Centre for European Policy Analysis warned Russia is already “up to no good” in the region and that China must also “be kept in check”.
Minna Ålander, a senior defence and security researcher, said Finland is preparing for full-scale war over concerns its 830-mile border with Russia could become a flashpoint if war-mad Putin sets his sights on the West.
Thousands of Nato soldiers have repeatedly taken part in war drills in the region – with the most recent exercises, dubbed Dynamic Front 25, taking place in November.
But Ålander said troops are not prepared to survive in the conditions.
Speaking at an Arctic security briefing, she said: “We have [Nato] troops – but do they know how to survive in the Arctic before they even get into combat?
“Even the US does not fully necessarily have what it what it takes in terms of that basic training of troops and how you conduct normal operations under these specific circumstances.
“Not all Nato allies have the capabilities that are needed and that work in the Arctic environment and climate.
“It has very specific sort of requirements on simple things when it’s very cold.
“You can’t just do expeditionary operations with troops without the appropriate basing – because you are going to die from natural causes.”
She added: “This is a gap on the whole in the alliance… it’s something that every nation needs to have.”
In a guide to Arctic warfare, Oscar Rosengren from intelligence firm Grey Dynamics, described “being surrounded by snow” as a “logistical nightmare”.
He said: “Freezing temperatures, extreme weather, and nature’s brutality will remind any actor waging war in Arctic climates of its harsh conditions.
“Conventional masses of soldiers lack adequate training. Such negligence will inevitably bring fatal consequences.”
The Finns know only too well the importance of being prepared to repel Russia.
During the Winter War of 1939 Winter War, lethal forces slaughtered 200,000 invading Soviet Russian troops.
Finland has remained poised for battle at anytime since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union – becoming one of the most combat-ready forces in Europe.
Finland joined Nato after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – meaning nations would now be obliged to come to its defence in the event of war.
Finland trains more than 21,000 new conscripts every year, with 285,000 reservists ready to go to war at any given moment – making it the biggest wartime reserve infantry in Nato.
They are all trained and equipped with one primary aim – to repel any Russian invasion.
And the country’s Jaegar Brigade is considered the ultimate specialist Arctic force in the world.
The unit’s winter combat course is used by the US and UK armies to train their troops for the possibility of an Arctic war.
Russia fears being ‘encircled’
Russia is desperate to achieve dominance in the Arctic region – and feels increasingly threatened by Nato which it believes is expanding there.
The territory in the Arctic circle belongs to eight countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Canada, the United States, Iceland and Russia.
After Finland and Sweden joined up last year, all the Arctic nations except Russia are now part of Nato.
Russia fears being “encircled” by Nato nations in the Arctic, according to The Arctic Institute.
And Putin sees Finland and Sweden’s ascension as evidence that is happening and is planning for “military confrontation” in the region.
Finnish soldier in full winter gear Finnish soldier in full winter gear[/caption]
US Special Forces on the Arctic warfare Jaegar training course in Finland[/caption]
In September, Russia’s foreign minister warned the country is “fully ready” for a war with Nato in the Arctic.
Sergey Lavrov said: “We see Nato stepping up drills related to possible crises in the Arctic.
“Our country is fully ready to defend its interests militarily, politically and from the standpoint of defence technologies.”
Lavrov said “the Arctic is not the territory of the North Atlantic alliance [Nato]”, and other countries such as China and India have interests there.
Russia owns 53 per cent of the Arctic coastline, meaning Putin sees “domination of the region’s resources” as “critical to the economic survival of his regime”, according to the Friends of the Earth think tank.
The Russian economy is reliant on oil and gas, and produces 60 per cent and 80 per cent respectively of these resources in the Arctic.
This will spark a “race for Arctic dominance that Russia is hellbent on winning”, the think tank said.
£10m fleet of battlefield snowmobiles
BRITAIN is preparing for Arctic war by kitting out Royal Marines with a £10million fleet of battlefield snowmobiles.
Troops will use the powerful machine – dubbed Lynx Brutal – to knock out comms and allow access for allied warplanes, the Royal Navy said.
They would be employed by the UK Commando Force – the country’s specialist extreme cold weather troops, capable of fighting across the Arctic‘s hostile conditions.
As tensions between Putin and the West have ramped up in recent years, the Arctic has become an increasingly contested geopolitical area.
If Nato goes to war with Russia, Britain’s main role would be fighting in Arctic conditions, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey previously said.
Custom built to plough through deep snow and tough trails, the new Lynx Brutal is ideally suited for taking Commandos and equipment behind enemy lines at a quicker pace.
With a turbo-charged 180 horsepower engine and 37-litre fuel tank, the 250kg vehicles will give troops a tactical advantage as they carry out reconnaissance and raiding operations in the High North.
They have already been trialled by Marines – who traditionally move across the snow on skis, snowshoes or towed by armoured vehicles to get into combat.
Last year, a top Moscow diplomat said that Finland would be “the first to suffer” if war broke out with Nato.
As Finland prepares for war, it signed an agreement with the US that allows American troops access to Finnish bases.
A military base at Ivalo, east Finland – just 20 miles from the Russian border – is now the outpost closest to mainland Russia where US troops can be stationed.
The base, dubbed Nato’s “Arctic Sparta”, is just 200 miles from Vlad’s Arctic Northern Fleet, where over two thirds of Putin’s prized nuclear missiles are stored.
This is “significant”, explains Ålander, because Putin feels a threat to “an important base for Russia’s global power projection”.
But it “heightens the risk of potential conflict”, she added, “because it is so important for Russia”.
Given its geographical location and the fact that forces from the Western alliance could be stationed there at any time, the elite Arctic base could become a Kremlin target.
Ålander thinks it is “very much a real possibility” that “a conventional war [could break out] in Finland – the same in Norway”.
“And Russia is likely to emphasise more than nuclear deterrence and nuclear assets in the future,” she added.
One of Russia’s Northern Fleet nuclear submarines, called Oryol[/caption]
Vladimir Putin could make the call to initiate a conflict across its Arctic border[/caption]
“There is a cap of the north region, which encompasses the northern parts of Finland, Sweden and Norway… it would be an area of interest for Russia to disrupt a potential Nato-Russia war.”
Other experts think that rather than all-out war, nations such as Russia and China will use the area as a testing ground to see how enemies respond.
Lance Landrum, who served in the US Air Force for more than three decades, said: “I see the region as an area for continued hybrid grey-zone pressure from Russia.
“We’ve seen it with manoeuvring on the seabed.
“I think the adversary looks for opportunities to test the willingness of nations, coherence and solidarity of an alliance.
“It is an area that is ripe for this hybrid activity to see how nations will react.
“It’s below the threshold of traditional conflict – but they see how far they can push.”
Foreign policy expert Mathieu Boulegue, from Center for European Policy Analysis, foresees “low intensity warfare operations conducted by Russia”.
He explained: “There may be insecurity because of forms of violence erupting elsewhere and spilling over.”
In November’s Arctic drills, 3,600 soldiers from the US, Sweden, the UK, France and other Nato members conducted live fire drills in preparation for war.
Colonel Janne Makitalo, director of the Dynamic Front 25 drills, said the main goal was to prepare troops for harsh Arctic conditions – now that Norway, Sweden and Finland are all Nato members.
He told reporters at the time: “This sends a message that we are able to train together and we are developing our assets.”
Joel Linnainmaki, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, said the drills were a message for Russia.
He said: “These Nato exercises are increasingly intended to show other countries, in this case especially Russia of course, that the alliance is united and is capable of defending its members.”
The Ivalo base is the closest US troops can be stationed to mainland Russia – just 20 miles away[/caption]
A Finnish Maxim M-32-33 machine gun nest 100 metres from Soviet forces during the Winter War[/caption]