Meter-high snowdrifts, deep caves, and camouflaged soldiers among them: Norwegian elite units also train in combat against drones during the NATO Cold Response 2026 exercises taking place in Norway and Finland, in which several tens of thousands of soldiers from 14 countries take part. They use an age-old trick. They are building quinzheeto protect yourself from enemy attacks.
Norwegian Army Commander General Lars Lervik says drones play an important role – including hiding from them. Several attack scenarios will be practiced. — Snow is our absolute best cover — we move in the dark, in fog, during snowfall, when our tracks are quickly covered up, and in good weather we remain motionless and hidden – explains General Lervik.
Another Norwegian general, Eirik Kristoffersen, in an interview with the British “Guardian” warned in mid-February this year that Russia may (try to) occupy territory in northern Norway to protect its nuclear capabilities. The Kola Peninsula near the Norwegian-Russian border is particularly important in this context. It is important for Russia primarily as a deterrent to NATO and the United States, because it is in the bases on the peninsula that Moscow stores a significant part of its Russian nuclear arsenal.
Spanish soldiers during NATO Cold Response 2026 exercises in NorwayHannah Nathalie Saebo-Thoresen/Forsvaret / Norwegian Armed Forces
“What worked four years ago may be outdated today”
General Lervik says about the ongoing exercises, which are among the largest and most important that are carried out in Norway during the year: – It is a constant improvement of what works for us and what does not. What worked four years ago may now be outdated due to the technological development of devices that are supposed to detect us.
Training for effective concealment is clearly an important topic of this year's Cold Response exercises. According to Defense News, soldiers must change their position every 15 minutes to avoid being detected. At the same time, they also use unmanned aerial systems to detect enemy drones.
More information about the exercises, which started on March 9 and will last until March 19, is provided by the Norwegian Armed Forces. On their website, they describe that their “overall goal is to strengthen deterrence, increase the defense capabilities of Norway and its allies, and reassure the public.” The idea is to demonstrate the ability to defend the northern wing of the Alliance against a potential enemy (implicitly Russia).
Soldiers from the Porsanger Battalion handling a tracked vehicle during Exercise Cold Response 2026Arun Rethnam Haug/Forsvaret / Norwegian Armed Forces
The exercise is led by a Norwegian-American headquarters established in Reitan, near the city of Bodo located above the Arctic Circle. Soldiers train both on land – in northern Norway and Finland – and in the air and at sea off the coast of northern Norway. In total, 32,000 people take part in them. 500 people, of which 7,500 in Finland and the rest (25,000) in Norway.
Participants of this year's Cold Response come from 14 countries – in addition to Norway and Finland, also from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, Turkey, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and from NATO structures. According to the Norwegian Armed Forces, “the exercises are of great importance for improving the interoperability of allied forces and supporting the integration of Finland and Sweden with NATO.”
