For Arctic Soldiers, Colder Is Better

 

“LOMBEN, Sweden -- Weeks after summer sun melted ice here near the Arctic circle, the air is a balmy 50 degrees.

 

It is the worst time to fight a war in the high north.

 

The Arctic is feared for its bone-chilling winters, when dangers include frostbite and snow blindness. Even worse, say soldiers who operate in these latitudes, is the warmer season, when mosquitoes and midges infest marshes that flood overnight, hampering troop movements and threatening to swallow up vehicles.

 

Western war planners see the European Arctic as a potential hot spot in a conflict with Russia. U.S. and European militaries have been sending troops to train in Arctic winter conditions. The Swedish military wants to teach them that, around here, warm weather is possibly even tougher. Since 2021 it has run autumn warfare courses to equip its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies to fight in the north year-round.

 

"We realized that if there is going to be a war, it is not going to be over in one winter," said Swedish army Sgt. Maj. Fredrik Flink from the Subarctic Warfare Center, which offers the courses in northern Sweden. "This requires a completely different way of fighting. You can almost compare it to the jungle."

 

The extreme cold of the Arctic winter is dangerous and debilitating without the right equipment and clothing. But once people have learned to operate in it, logistics and transportation across wide expanses of ice are more straightforward and predictable than when the ice melts.

 

In September, when The Wall Street Journal visited the warm-weather course, the Swedish bog emitted a sulfurous smell of rot. Permafrost beneath prevents drainage, creating waterlogged surfaces and mud pits. Temperatures, while not yet freezing, combine with wind and rain to cause hypothermia and other cold-related injuries.

 

Moss can be deceiving and collapse under the weight of a boot.

 

"Training in the Arctic, if it's cold, is easy," said Gary Goodfellow, a 24-year-old U.K. Royal Marine commando who participated in the course in mid-September. "The wet messes everything up."

 

European intelligence agencies don't expect Russia to invade a NATO state as long as Moscow works in Ukraine, but say Russia could be able to launch a war on a European NATO ally within five years.

 

World powers have fought few large-scale military operations in the Arctic -- and none since World War II.

 

The Swedish military has termed late fall and late spring a "fifth season," characterized by floods and fluctuating temperatures. Less than an inch of daytime rain may not seem like much, but add ice melt from the mountains and a marsh can flood so much that soldiers get trapped in the middle overnight. Wet boots stay damp or freeze overnight. Last year, a dozen Danish soldiers suffered cold injuries because they didn't bring proper boots.

 

"We don't have the same lived experience that most Swedes have," said Captain Barney Walker, of the British army's Ranger Regiment. "It's a slow learning curve."

 

Training NATO allies to operate in the high north is also in Sweden's interest, said Lt. Col. Anders Killmey, commander of the Subarctic Warfare Center. If Russia crossed its 830-mile border with Finland, Swedish forces would rush east to reinforce their neighbor's front line. NATO allies, including U.S. troops in Germany and Poland, would pour into Sweden to backfill them. A soldier unacquainted with the high north needs a month just to acclimatize.

 

"They are not coming here just to survive. They have to be able to contribute," Killmey said.” [1]

 

1. World News: For Arctic Soldiers, Colder Is Better. Sune Engel Rasmussen.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 03 Oct 2025: A8.