Cold-weather warfare,
also known as Arctic warfare or winter warfare,
encompasses military operations affected by snow,
ice, thawing conditions or cold,
both on land and at sea.
Mountain warfare often takes place in cold weather
or on terrain that is affected by ice and snow,
such as the Alps and the Himalayas.
Historically,
most such operations have been during winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
Some have occurred above the Arctic Circle where snow,
ice and cold may occur throughout the year.
Here's the video of how the US Special Forces
and Russian Spetsnaz conduct winter warfare training
In recent years,
Russia has increased Arctic military drills,
opened or reopened military bases,
constructed icebreakers,
and established advanced radar stations to enhance its control of the region.
Such actions have led some journalists to proclaim
that President Putin has opened an Arctic Front in a New Cold War.
In April 2020,
Russia conducted three-day exercise on Alexandra Land,
an island in Russia's Franz Josef Land archipelago,
which sits on the Arctic Ocean well above the Arctic Circle.
Russian special operations forces Spetsnaz,
from both the military Special Operations Forces Command
and the Federal Security Service's Special Purpose Center,
took part in the event,
together with Russian Army paratroopers.
The drill itself included troops setting up a base camp once on the ground,
conducting reconnaissance patrols using snowmobiles and drones,
and launching a raid on a mock camp filled with "saboteurs,"
a term Russia often applies to terrorist cells
or other small groups of hostile actors,
including enemy special operations teams.
The participants represent some of the most elite elements
of the Russian security forces as well.
The entire exercise was clearly meant to demonstrate Russia's ability
to rapidly respond to crises,
including the sudden detection
of a small group of hostile special operations forces,
or intelligence suggesting their presence,
somewhere in the Arctic.
In the exercise,
some of Russian Spetsnaz and paratroopers personnel
jumping from Il-76 Candid transport aircraft flying at close to 33,000 feet.
This is yet another high-profile demonstration
of Russia's steadily growing capabilities in this ever-more strategic region,
and showed off its ability to quickly send
special operations forces there or anywhere else.
Since 2014,
Russian military forces have also conducted
a number of similarly high-profile airborne exercises
in the general vicinity of the North Pole,
as part of the country's expanding focus on Arctic operations.
In its 2016 "Mountain Warfare and Cold Weather Operations" manual,
the US Army defines cold regions as "where cold temperatures,
unique terrain,
and snowfall have a significant effect on military operations
for one month or more each year."
It describes regions that are either severely cold or moderately cold,
each comprising approximately one quarter of the Earth's land mass.
The US military maintains cold-weather warfare training centers
at the Army Northern Warfare Training Center ( NWTC )
at Fort Wainwright, Fairbanks, Alaska,
and the US Air Force Arctic Survival School
at Eielson AFB, Alaska.
The United States Army Northern Warfare Training Center
is the name of a United States Army Alaska (USARAK)
special skills training unit and facility.
It is the Active Army's only cold region training proponent.
Today,
The Northern Warfare Training Center is responsible
for maintaining the U.S. Army's state of the art
in cold weather and mountain warfare.
The Center provides training in these subjects
to both active and reserve components
and assists in the development of tactics
and techniques for such operations.
In September 2020,
a 1st Battalion,
1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) team,
along with attached troops from
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska
conducted Valor United 20,
an arctic warfare training exercise in Seward, Alaska.
Special Forces and conventional soldiers
alike developed their patrolling and survival skills
in some of the most unforgiving terrain in the United States.
Key focus areas for the training were arctic,
alpine and glacier movement,
crevasse rescue,
and long-range high-frequency communications.