With little sense of the state of alert in Scandinavia caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine waning, a 100 day training exercise is taking part in Norway.

Already, Norwegian forces have embarked on the longest mid-winter training exercise in recent history, cutting all contact with the outside world for 100 days as they prepare for warfare behind enemy lines.

Royal Navy to join NATO exercise in Norway sending patrol boats and troops

To coincide with this, the British Royal Navy has announced that it will be sending four fast patrol craft (some of the smallest warships in the UK’s inventory) back to the Arctic Circle and Norway’s Svalbard next month.

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They will be joining NATO’s Exercise Joint Viking accompanied by a number of Royal Marines and Commandos on what has become an annual exercise with the Royal Navy spending around two months patrolling in the area.

All will face sub-zero temperatures – the average by day is about -6 Celsius, but even in March in the Arctic it can be as cold as -30 – but the squadron now has several years’ experience operating in such a harsh environment.

After making 13 stops en route, Royal Navy to join NATO exercise in Norway in March

Designed to operate relatively close to shore, with a limited range and basic living quarters on board, the four vessels – HMS Blazer, Charger, Puncher and Trumpeter, each crewed by five sailors apiece – depart Portsmouth in early February.

They will make 13 stops in ports in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Norway before reaching the northern port of Harstad which will act as the hub for their participation in the NATO training.

Once there, the craft will be used by Royal Navy dive teams and mine warfare experts to conduct covert surveys of the fjords, insert raiding parties, gather intelligence around Norway’s Troms county and ‘threaten’ other NATO warships by playing ‘enemy’ forces.

“The Coastal Forces Squadron deploying to Norway has become an annual event and offers an opportunity for our small engineering teams to operate in harsh environments, often isolated from the safety of the support networks back in the UK,” said CPO Nicholas Brooks, Marine Engineer Officer of HMS Puncher and a veteran of operating the fast patrol craft in Norway.

“This unforgiving environment provides a unique opportunity for the team and whole crew to push ourselves, our kit and develop the way we operate. Operating in the High North always brings unique engineering challenges and we’re excited to see what this year brings” he added.