Norwegian defense officials have confirmed that the US is pulling several of its fighter jets and other aircraft out of the upcoming NATO Cold Response military exercises in Northern Norway. As many as 150 American soldiers may also be withdrawn, all part of the US military build-up in the Middle East and its potential war with Iran.
The Cold Response exercises annually gather thousands of NATO troops in and off Northern Norway. The US alone is still due to send nearly 4,000 soldiers this year, but now their numbers will be reduced along with the number of American aircraft, especially F35 fighter jets.
“They’ll be heading to other parts of the world,” Lt Col Espen Solemdal told newspaper Fremover, based in Northern Norway. Flight radar data has also shown how several F35, F22 and F18 figher jets are in the process of being sent to the Middle East. Oslo newspaper VG called it the biggest military aircraft build-up in the area for two decades, including surveillance-, re-fueling-, personnel- and supply planes.
Maritime radar has also shown major movement of US military vessels to the Persian Gulf off Iran, including several US aircraft carriers. The US is demanding that Iran shut down its entire nuclear program, while Iran has responded by carrying on military exercises of its own.
Norwegian defense officials, meanwhile, confirmed to VG that they’ve been moving some Norwegian soldiers out of the region. That includes around 60 soldiers based in both Iraq and Jordan.
“Some of these are re-located as a consequence of the tension in the region,” Brynjar Stordal at the Norwegian defense operative headquarters told VG, adding that the “relocations” were made “in cooperation with our coalition partners.”
While the situation in Iran is forcing a change of plans for Cold Response, it will proceed as an important Norwegian-led training exercise to defend the Arctic. Norway has been doing so for decades, as NATO’s so-called “eyes and ears” in the area that’s under increased threats from Russia.
“We won’t have the same dividends of the training we would have had if they (the Americans) had come,” Størdal told state broadcaster NRK, “but the exercise will move forward and we will still offer and get good training.”
Cold Response 2026 will be led from a Norwegian-American headquarters set up at Reitan outside Bodø. Around 25,000 soldiers from 14 NATO countries (Norway, the US, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, Turkey, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Belgium) will take part. The exercises will run from March 9-19, with 11,800 soldiers on the ground in Norway and the rest taking part at sea, in the air and in Finland.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
