The United States Army’s 11th Airborne Division, nicknamed the “Arctic Angels,” is taking part in the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center Rotation 26-02 exercise in Alaska to sharpen its capabilities for combat in extreme cold conditions.
Soldiers are contending with brutal Arctic challenges — from logistics and movement through deep snow to the failure of equipment like tablets and small drones whose batteries and screens fail in sub-zero temperatures. Units are experimenting with heated chargers, insulated batteries, and different drone materials to adapt technology for the cold, and they are refining tactics to deal with slow maneuvers, terrain obstacles, and sustainment issues while ensuring troops stay warm, fed, and hidden from enemy sensors.
Carley Welch of BreakingDefense reports that the training highlights both persistent shortcomings and rapid adaptation as the Army prepares forces for potential operations in the Arctic. Welch writes:
YUKON TRAINING AREA, Alaska — About 30 miles southeast of Fairbanks, soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 11th Airborne Division periodically bob their heads in and out of their six-foot deep hole in the snow, covered by only a camouflage tarp as they kept watch for their “enemy:” the 1st Infantry Brigade.
The soldiers usually try to move as little as possible in such positions to conserve body heat in temperatures that average around negative 20 to 40 degrees with wind chills much colder here this time of year, but today the soldiers seem restless. […]
It doesn’t help that everything breaks at negative 40 degrees, he added.
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