Gearing up for BATTLE? US troops land in Norway to train for 'ARCTIC WARFARE survival'
HUNDREDS of US troops have landed in Norway to train for Arctic warfare after thousands more were stationed in Poland in a NATO operation that has left Russia furious.
A group of 300 US Marines landed in Norway earlier today, the first time US troops have been stationed there since the Second World War.
The deployment is said to have infuriated Russia just days after some 2,700 US troops arrived in Poland to boost its Eastern European allies in a NATO operation.
Officials played down any link between the Norway operation and NATO concerns over Russia.
For the first four weeks they will have basic winter training, learn how to cope with skis and to survive in the Arctic environment
US troops will stay in Norway for a year, with today’s batch of Marines being replaced once their six-month tour is complete.
They will be stationed at Vaernes military base, about 900 miles from the Russian border, to learn about winter warfare.
Rune Haarstad, a spokesman for the Norwegian Home Guards said: "For the first four weeks they will have basic winter training, learn how to cope with skis and to survive in the Arctic environment.
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”It has nothing to do with Russia or the current situation."
Soldiers from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina landed a little after 9am at a snow-covered Vaernes airport near Trondheim.
British troops will train with the Marines in March in a Joint Viking exercise, he added.
It marks a major change in NATO member states’ policy of not hosting foreign troops on its soil.
The Russian Embassy in Oslo did not immediately reply to a request for comment by Reuters.
When the Norway deployment was announced in October, the Russian Embassy said: "Taking into account multiple statements of Norwegian officials about the absence of threat from Russia to Norway we would like to understand for what purposes is Norway so ... willing to increase its military potential, in particular through stationing of American forces in Vaernes?"
A spokeswoman for Norwegian Ministry of Defence also said the arrival of US Marines had nothing to do with concerns about Russia.
The Norway deployment comes just days after the largest US military reinforcement of Europe in decades of around 2,700 troops, out of 3,500 planned, arrived in Poland as part of operation Atlantic Resolve, aimed at showing Moscow Washington's commitment to its allies.
US Army Colonel Christopher R. Norrie, commander of the 3rd Armoured Brigade Combat Team, said: "The main goal of our mission is deterrence and prevention of threats.”
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After Russia’s annexation of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in 2014, Poland and the Baltic former Soviet Republics requested US and NATO troops over fears Vladimir Putin planned further military intervention in the region.
The Kremlin said the Poland deployment was an aggressive step along its borders.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "We consider this a threat to us.
”We are talking here about a third country stepping up its military presence in Europe near our borders."
The US deployment to NATO's eastern flank includes more than 80 main battle tanks and hundreds of armoured vehicles.
The military unit will rotate through several countries, including Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.