Military exercises in Alaska, Greenland test forces on operating in Arctic conditions

U.S. forces this week wrapped up their information successful an yearly Arctic grooming workout that for the archetypal clip was held successful some Alaska and Greenland. Arctic Edge, which began successful 2018, includes grooming to respond to threats that Russia — and progressively China — could airs to the U.S. 

The information successful Greenland was coordinated with Denmark and progressive some U.S. and Danish peculiar forces. The long-planned workout took spot contempt President Trump's repeated threats this twelvemonth to take control of Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark. 

According to NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, which ran the exercise, Denmark hosted the U.S. successful Greenland for grooming focused connected operating successful the Arctic. Every different year, Arctic Edge takes spot successful the wintertime and this year's was the archetypal successful caller years to instrumentality spot successful the dormant of winter.   

File: A U.S. Air Force Special Operations Forces (SOF) Airman navigates the crystal expanse during a simulated hunt and rescue for ARCTIC EDGE 2026 (AE26) successful Kangerlussaq, Greenland, March 7, 2026. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service

"Half of the conflict successful exercising successful the wintertime successful the Arctic is simply surviving," Royal Canadian Air Force Lt. Gen. Iain Huddleston, the lawman commandant of NORAD, told reporters earlier this week.

The wide acquisition of the workout is the subject indispensable hole units for the Arctic earlier they get there, according to U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Davis, who is the caput of U.S. Alaska Command, the Alaskan NORAD region, and commandant of the 11th Air Force. 

During the grooming exercise, according to Davis, determination are routinely craft that are damaged and necessitate further attraction due to the fact that of the deficiency of familiarity with practices unsocial to the utmost cold, similar warming up hydraulic systems beforehand. Some work members effort to unfastened the model connected an craft excessively soon, and the model cracks. 

"Now you can't usage the craft until you regenerate the model — so, a mates of examples of conscionable immoderate of the applicable challenges of not operating connected a regular basis, and past each of a abrupt coming up into the Arctic and having to bash a small find learning," Davis said. 

Huddleston and Davis said the workout did not person a theoretical adversary but had portions to support against weapons, similar the cruise missiles that lone definite countries, similar Russia and China, could perchance usage to endanger the U.S. 

"We don't person immoderate quality that would suggest that we're really astatine hazard of them launching cruise missiles against Alaska," Davis said. "Nevertheless, we consciousness similar we request to beryllium adequately prepared to instrumentality the subject capabilities that the U.S. authorities has fixed to america from a antiaircraft position and marque definite that we tin enactment them together." 

A smaller limb of expanding interest to the subject is the drone. In the exercise, the subject practiced responding to a drone incursion astatine Fort Greely successful Alaska. 

According to Davis, they tested scenarios including a azygous drone that mightiness conscionable beryllium surveilling the installation arsenic good arsenic a tiny swarm of astir six drones, to spot if the antithetic systems Fort Greely has were capable to observe and pass accusation to the Army soldiers. 

"None of the drones were wholly undetected," Davis said, adding that determination are aggregate types of sensors and astatine slightest 1 of them detected each of the drone, and nary of the systems were negatively impacted by the temperature, which tin plummet to -40 degrees fahrenheit. 

The U.S. forces did instrumentality down 1 drone, according to Davis, but utilized a counter-unmanned aerial strategy that throws a nett implicit the drone and lowers it to the crushed intact truthful the U.S tin inspect it. 

Because the counter-drone systems astatine Fort Greely are mostly electronics based and don't needfully necessitate batteries, which tin drain rapidly successful the cold, the temperatures "didn't truly impact them successful a antagonistic way, which is good," Davis said. 

He said the velocity astatine which manufacture and commercialized companies are modifying and changing drone exertion makes it "really difficult" for the ceremonial programs wrong the subject to support up. That's a interest the Pentagon is confronting passim the equipped forces, not conscionable successful the Arctic.