By Gwladys Fouche, Stine Jacobsen, Lili Bayer and Sabine Siebold<\/p>\n
EVENES, Norway, June 26 (Reuters) – During a frozen morning in Arctic Norway, a group of British and Norwegian soldiers padded softly through a snow-blanketed birch forest.<\/p>\n
They were on a simulated NATO reconnaissance mission, among some 30,000 troops who took part in a drill rehearsing a counter-attack against an invading \u201cenemy to the east,\u201d a euphemism for Russia, Norway’s Arctic neighbour.<\/p>\n
Russia has raced far ahead in Arctic defence over the past decade, modernising the world\u2019s largest ice-breaking fleet as climate change creates new routes; and reopening dozens of Soviet-era bases in a region \u200cthat provides the shortest path to the United States for its nuclear intercontinental missiles.<\/p>\n
The exercises in March were part of a stepped-up effort called Arctic Sentry that aims to show Washington that Europe and Canada can defend the alliance\u2019s northern flank. Secretary General Mark Rutte announced Arctic Sentry in February as he lobbied \u200cU.S. President Donald Trump to drop a push to acquire Greenland.<\/p>\n
Rutte was successful with Trump, but significantly strengthening the alliance\u2019s Arctic posture is more challenging, interviews with dozens of current and former NATO officials and Arctic experts show.<\/p>\n
It requires long-term investments in a wide range of assets \u2013 including ice-breakers, submarines, drones and satellites \u2013 testing allies\u2019 economic and military resources at a time when Trump has threatened to leave NATO altogether and Washington is withdrawing troops, \u200bplanes, ships and weapons from Europe.<\/p>\n
Through most of NATO\u2019s eight-decade history, the inhospitable High North was low priority. But melting ice, Russia\u2019s growing strength in a mineral-rich region larger than the United States and increased interest from China have changed that calculus.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo major power in the 21st century will be able to maintain its position on the global scene without, in one way or another, having a strong presence in the Arctic,\u201d Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, an ex-Icelandic president who chairs the Arctic Circle forum, the ‘Davos of the Arctic,’ told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Reuters could not establish whether the United States was contributing more or less to collective Arctic defence under Arctic Sentry, which is led by Joint Force Command Norfolk, Virginia, established in 2019 with an eye on Russia\u2019s advances in the north. In response to questions from the news agency, a NATO official said the United States remains a key contributor to NATO\u2019s Arctic defence, noting the commitment was reaffirmed in a joint statement between the Arctic allies in June.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon and White House did not respond to Reuters questions for this story, including whether U.S. forces involved in the Arctic defence will be impacted by \u200ca U.S. review of troops in Europe. Along with lingering worries about Trump\u2019s ambitions in Greenland, the security review is expected \u2060to cast a shadow over a NATO summit in Ankara in July.<\/p>\n
The White House has previously said Trump has prompted allies \u201cto recognize the need to meaningfully contribute to their own defense,\u201d calling the Arctic critical for U.S. national security and the economy.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s Ministry of Defence did not respond to a request for comment for this story. The Kremlin has in the past said the United States is stoking tensions in the Arctic.<\/p>\n
KOLA PENINSULA NUCLEAR ARSENAL<\/p>\n
A key challenge for European NATO allies is monitoring activity on Arctic Russia\u2019s Kola Peninsula, neighbouring Finland and Norway. The \u2060peninsula accounts for around two-thirds of Russia’s second-strike nuclear capabilities, including the Russian navy\u2019s Northern Fleet, which operates six of Russia\u2019s 12 nuclear-armed submarines.<\/p>\n
From the peninsula, Russia could launch hypersonic missiles towards the United States, making early warning systems vital, or send the submarines towards the U.S. East Coast via the Bear Gap in the Barents Sea and the GIUK Gap between Greenland, Iceland and Britain.<\/p>\n
Norway and NATO allies currently monitor the fleet in the GIUK Gap and the Barents Sea, where critical undersea cables have suffered damage in incidents some attribute to Russia. The Norwegians spy on Kola Peninsula installations and share the intelligence with the Americans.<\/p>\n
But NATO must further improve its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capacities, said Mauro Gilli, a professor of military strategy at the Berlin-based Hertie School.<\/p>\n
Such abilities do not come cheap \u200bin Arctic \u200bconditions where standard equipment often fails. Northern Norway can, for instance, see temperatures drop to -45\u00b0Celsius (-49\u00b0Fahrenheit) in winter ex-wind chill factor.<\/p>\n
The Arctic is mostly ocean across Greenland, Iceland, northern Norway and the Barents Sea, so \u200bany security presence must be primarily naval, which is costly, said Grimsson. The United States has only two operational icebreakers. Russia, with by \u200cfar the biggest Arctic territory, has 42, some nuclear-powered.<\/p>\n
Satellite communications that work at high latitudes are crucial to allow real-time detection, Gilli told Reuters, along with long-endurance drones that work in extreme cold, expanded underwater surveillance, and different types of ground-based radars. He estimated investments could run into hundreds of billions of dollars.<\/p>\n
Climate change is making submarine tracking harder, calling for investment in new generations of submarine sensors that can counter changing salinity levels and currents from warming oceans, such as the North Atlantic, which is warming rapidly, according to NATO Defence College research from 2025.<\/p>\n
The changes affect how sound travels through water, shrinking the range at which submarines can be detected, the research found.<\/p>\n
At the moment “we can listen to and track submarines in the Barents Sea and follow them. If we are not doing that and we lose control of the submarines, then we have a problem,” Norwegian Defence Minister Tore Sandvik told reporters in January.<\/p>\n
A Russian intelligence ship was observed monitoring NATO exercises in the North Atlantic and tracked between Iceland and Greenland in June, the Icelandic government said in a statement, underlining Moscow’s own surveillance of the region’s strategic waterways.<\/p>\n
IS NATO UP TO THE CHALLENGE?<\/p>\n
There are signs NATO is trying to face up to the challenge. Nordic countries are among the biggest defence spenders in the alliance and on track to meet NATO\u2019s target of 5% of GDP by 2035. The U.S. and Finland are teaming up to build up to six icebreakers, \u200cthe first due next year. Norway is buying frigates and submarines. The Nordics pooled air forces to create a fleet as large as Britain’s.<\/p>\n
Shaken by Trump\u2019s threats to make it a U.S. state and \u200bkeen to wean itself off a decades-long dependence on U.S. defence support, Canada unveiled a major C$35 billion ($25.7 billion) Arctic defence plan in March for infrastructure including military airfields in the region.<\/p>\n
It is coordinating more closely \u200bwith Nordic countries and, with Denmark, investing in ice-capable vessels. Prime Minister Mark Carney told Reuters during a March visit to Oslo that NATO\u2019s focus on Arctic security \u200bwas overdue but welcome.<\/p>\n
British officer Vice-Admiral James Morley, deputy commander of JFC Norfolk, said Arctic Sentry will help more NATO soldiers learn how to operate in harsh polar conditions.<\/p>\n
“It provides a much more realistic environment,” Morley told Reuters at the Bardufoss air base in northern Norway, where British \u200cRoyal Marines train on snowmobiles, skis and helicopters.<\/p>\n
The United Kingdom is doubling to 2,000 the number of Royal Marines permanently deployed \u200bto Norway. In June, NATO activated a new grouping of 600 soldiers based in Sweden and \u200bFinland\u2019s Lapland regions.<\/p>\n
However, Iris Ferguson, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defence for Arctic and global resilience between 2022 and 2025, said prioritising the region is difficult.<\/p>\n
“When you have a hot war burning in the East, it’s hard to direct investment into a region that doesn’t feel as hot,” Ferguson told Reuters, referring to Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine.<\/p>\n
KEEPING AMERICA ON SIDE<\/p>\n
U.S. military leaders taking part in the Arctic Sentry exercise, called Cold Response, tried to reassure European counterparts.<\/p>\n
“Our commitment is to defend every last inch of NATO territory,” Major General Daniel Shipley, commander of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces for Europe and Africa, said in Bardufoss, Arctic Norway.<\/p>\n
But European \u200bleaders\u2019 anxiety is high after Trump’s Greenland threats and talk of withdrawing from NATO. Last month, the U.S. announced cuts to its \u200cNATO crisis force contributions including fighter jets, drones and ships.<\/p>\n
Norway, traditionally tightly aligned with Washington, joined France’s nuclear deterrence initiative in June.<\/p>\n
Norwegian officials now emphasise it is in Washington’s interest to stay engaged, an argument they did not have to make before.<\/p>\n
“100 kilometres from my border is the world’s largest nuclear \u200barsenal. And it is not directed against me, Mr. President, but against you,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a speech in February, recalling a conversation with Trump at the White House.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold in Berlin, Andrew Gray and Lili Bayer in Brussels, Gwladys Fouche in Evenes and Bardufoss, \u200bNorway, Stine Jacobsen and Soren Jeppesen in Copenhagen, Johan Ahlander in Stockholm; Anne Kauranen in Helsinki and Idrees Ali in Washington; writing by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Frank Jack Daniel)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Gwladys Fouche, Stine Jacobsen, Lili Bayer and Sabine Siebold EVENES, Norway, June 26 (Reuters) – During a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3041,3042,403,57,3043,7,287,20,49],"class_list":["post-3931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-arctic-norway","tag-arctic-russia","tag-arctic-sentry","tag-donald-trump","tag-high-north","tag-nato","tag-nato-allies","tag-russia","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}