Norway Is on a 100-Day Mission to Test Military Limits in the Arctic

As tensions with Russia rise, 13 Norwegian soldiers have been sent to the far North to test the cold’s effects on their minds, bodies and equipment.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Inside the one hundred day Mission to Test Military limits
in the Arctic by Morgen Meeker and Daniel Baushav, read
by Bobby Gosch. It's the middle of the nights in
the hills of northern Norway. As a small group of
soldiers skis silently toward an enemy target. The cold drains

(00:21):
the batteries on the patrol leader's night vision goggles and
stiffens his skis, making them hard to maneuver. GPS is glitchy,
and the thermometer reads minus thirty seven degrees centigrade or
minus thirty four point six degrees fahrenheit. With winschil it
feels even colder. The soldiers members of a Norwegian military
intelligence regiment, are among thirteen men taking part in an

(00:44):
exercise to test the effect of Arctic conditions on their equipment,
bodies and minds. Their mission is to survive one hundred days,
more than double the length of previous military expeditions to
this part of Norway. It's like going to the We
don't know what to expect, said the patrol leader. For
security reasons, the Norwegian military requested that none of the

(01:07):
soldiers mentioned in this article were named. The Norwegian expedition
comes as Europe grapples with the reality of its defense capabilities,
especially in light of the Trump administration shift in attitude
when it comes to supporting Western European allies. There is
also a growing sense that the Arctic is a potential
forum for future conflict since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Both

(01:30):
Finland and Sweden have joined NATO. In the past couple
of years, Russia conducted a major military exercise north of Siberia,
NATO's largest military exercise since the Cold War, focused in
part on the Arctic, and China's Coast Guard entered the
Arctic Ocean for the first time, patrolling alongside Russian ships.
President Donald Trump further increased focus on the region with

(01:53):
a pledge to acquire Greenland, saying that ownership of the
territory is an absolute nes necessity for national security. Military
experts say all of these factors are creating new urgency
to understand and overcome the human and technological limits of
military operations in extreme arctic conditions. Almost everything about a

(02:16):
soldier's work has to be rethought in such low temperatures,
from how the body reacts to the use of new
technologies and dealing with casualties. Technologically, Arctic warfare can seem
like a step back in time. Satellite positioning for radars,
as well as anything linked to the electromagnetic environment, is
highly disrupted by both distance and also the constant chaff

(02:40):
that exists in the region, said Matthew Bolege, a Transatlantic
Defense and Security Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis,
referring to disruption that includes solar flares and the reverberation
of sunlight upon water or ice. Battery life and detecting
target are also challenges in these conditions, you name it,

(03:03):
everything is more complicated, pu Lege said. The range for
electric batteries can be reduced by half in extreme cold,
said Heidi Andresen, co founder and partner are test Nor,
which helps test military and civilian products in the Arctic.
Another problem Arctic winds strong enough to rip the doors
of a car, which Andreyesson said can also whip up

(03:27):
salt water that causes equipment to malfunction. It's often a
surprise for many how harsh the environment can be to
different kinds of technology, she said. Ricka Amilde Seehus, a
principal scientist at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment has tested
drones in minus thirty degrees centigrade. If the wind is

(03:47):
stronger than your drones max velocity, you have a problem.
She said. Her team has been trying to teach drones
to detect and avoid bad weather by estimating wind speed,
to calculate how much battery power they'll need to return home,
and to alert their operators to the threat of ice.
Climate change is likely to magnify many of the challenges

(04:08):
associated with Arctic combat. The region is warming much faster
than the rest of the planet, which will alleviate some
of the extreme cold, but also creates increasingly unpredictable conditions. Flooding, wildfires,
and extreme weather all damage military infrastructure and hamper mobility.
Equipment is more likely to malfunction if snow finds its

(04:29):
way inside, melts and then refreezes. Keeping soldiers dry is
also more of a challenge When temperatures fluctuate, Perspiration needs
to be managed to avoid hypothermia or trench foot. That
means troops need to travel with the means to dry
their clothing, as well as extra gear to handle a
wider variety of conditions. For instance, midway through the Norwegian

(04:51):
militaries one hundred day exercise, the soldiers stopped in finn Mark,
the country's most northerly region, for a three day hiatus,
during which they they underwent medical and psychological tests. The
patrol leader was able to change his socks for the
first time in three months, he said in an interview.
The stress of constant missions and the lack of sunlight
so far north at that time of year had left

(05:14):
the patrol irritable and led to some squabbles among the men.
He added. To stay warm, the soldiers wear layers, including
wool underwear, as well as netting for extra insulation. They
sleep in waterproof sheets to prevent moisture collecting in sleeping bags.
To increase their caloric intake, they've been adding butter to
their rations and drinking cooking oil. According to an officer

(05:35):
with the Norwegian military, the soldiers slaughter a reindeer to
eat too Prolonged exposure to cold temperatures can result in
muscle stiffness and reduced manual dexterity, said Jurgen Malau, a
researcher from the Norwegian Armed Forces Joint Medical Services, who
is one of around ten scientists studying the platoon. Then
it's much harder to use your weapons or just zip

(05:58):
up your jacket, Malau said. Before the expedition started, the
scientists took blood samples from the soldiers and measured their
lung function and muscle mass. The tests were repeated at
the midway point, and measurements will be taken again at
the end of one hundred days. We're not sure what
we will find in any of these tests because this
hasn't been done before, said Miloo. About seventy five percent

(06:21):
of the findings will be published widely and the rest
will be shared with NATO allies. Dealing with casualties in
extreme conditions is particularly challenging, said Melao. Blood doesn't clot
well in the court. Military planners have learned from the
war in Ukraine that deploying helicopters to evacuate injured soldiers
is not always possible. They are too likely to be

(06:42):
shot down. So the Norwegian soldiers practiced evacuating their casualties
volunteer conscripts acting in the role of wounded military personnel,
pulling them for two hundred and sixty five kilometers or
one hundred and sixty five miles in sleds behind their
snowmobiles for fifty one hours. The patrol lead the surveys.
The sparse landscape near the village of luck Selv, a

(07:04):
twenty four hour drive north of Oslo. Its minus three
degrees centigrade and the snow is falling on the thin
birch trees. He and his colleagues are almost finished with
their one hundred day experience their expected home on April thirty.
He is intrigued about what the results of the physical
and psychological testing will reveal about the military operations in

(07:26):
the frozen north, but his mind is also wandering to
the comfort of home. Having a shower would be great,
he said,