US Special Operations Drills in Alaska, Sweden show concern over Chokepoint
- U.S. special operations troops conducted exercises on opposite sides of the world in late October.
- The exercises reflect concerns about being able to operate on vital territories and in important watercourses.
In October, US special operations forces trained on their own and with partners in two key chokepoints on opposite sides of the world, reflecting an increasing focus on these hotspots and others like them in the midst of rising tensions in Europe and Asia.
In mid-October, U.S. special operations troops were deployed to Shemya Island in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands as part of the NORAD-led exercise Noble Defender to “exercise capability to secure key terrain and critical infrastructure,” said General Glen VanHerck, commander of Northern. Command and NORAD, told Insider in a statement.
Noble Defender is “a recurring operation” meant to demonstrate NORAD’s ability to coordinate US and Canadian forces in the defense of North America, VanHerck said.
As the Arctic becomes more accessible, the US military has increased its activity around Alaska and sees it as a base for projecting power to the Pacific and Europe.
Training in the Aleutians now has the practical value of recognizing American forces with terrain that did not receive much attention after the Cold War. “It’s basically saying they’re back,” said Rob Huebert, a professor and Arctic expert at the University of Calgary.
U.S. Special Operators’ training activities at Shemya included naval deployment, special reconnaissance drone launches, melee combat, medical evacuations, and short-range integrated air defense, among other exercises.
These are capabilities that “are becoming increasingly difficult under Arctic conditions,” VanHerck said, adding that the troops “demonstrated their professionalism and ability to operate successfully” throughout the exercise.
The United States has had military installations on Shemya, which is closer to Russia than the mainland of the United States, since World War II, including the Cobra Dane radar, which Northern Command called “a key sensor for identifying ballistic missiles.”
Cobra Dane was built in the 1970s and has gained renewed relevance in the midst of the proliferation of air threats, such as cruise and hypersonic missiles. “The further out you can go in terms of your ability to monitor your opponent, the better your systems will be,” said Huebert.
Given the military importance of the region, the training on Shemya Island was not “terribly surprising,” Huebert said.
“These are obvious messages,” Huebert told Insider, “because if they wanted to do an exercise on the Aleutians and keep it quiet, it’s not very difficult to do.”
“A hot property”
While American special forces trained on Sheyma, their counterparts trained in Europe with Swedish commandos in southern Sweden and on Sweden’s Gotland, in the heart of the Baltic Sea.
Included in their training was the deployment and launch of an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System on Swedish territory for the first time.
The use of HIMARS demonstrated the ability of American and Swedish forces to “quickly use long-range precision fires across the theater at a time and place of our choice,” the U.S. Air Force’s 352nd Special Operations Wing sa.
Swedish troops train regularly with the United States and other NATO soldiers, but Sweden is not a member of NATO, and it is unusual for American forces to train on Baltic islands such as Gotland, which is seen as “a hot property”, says Mathieu Boulègue. , a researcher in Russia and the Eurasia program at the British think tank Chatham House.
Gotland and other small islands belonging to Sweden and Finland have “always been the soft underbelly of security” in the region, seen as likely targets if Russia wanted to expand its military footprint or try to deny NATO and its partners freedom of movement in the Baltic Sea, Boulègue said.
The deployment of HIMARS demonstrated the “continued efforts of the United States and Sweden to maintain interoperability and rapid response readiness in the region”, 352nd Wing sa.
A large Russian move towards Gotland would become visible almost immediately, but there are suspicions of more subtle activity. A massive Finnish police raid on one of the country’s islands at the end of 2018 led to rumors of secret Russian military activity in the area.
Like its neighbors, Sweden has increased defense spending, re-emphasized civil defense and plans to expand its military in response to tensions with Russia. Sweden has also strengthened Gotland’s defense and expects it to be a target early in a war.
Russia has built up its military and “has shown that they are willing to use it,” Karin Olofsdotter, Sweden’s ambassador to the United States, told Insider in an interview this spring.
“When we feel that our European security system and so on are threatened, we get nervous,” said Olofsdotter. “That is why we are increasing our security capacity, and of course the United States is an important partner in doing so.”
Rising threats
The Baltic Sea and the North Pacific have both seen more military activity in the midst of tensions between NATO and Russia. Close encounters in the Baltic Sea are common and the Bering Strait is expected to grow in importance as the Arctic becomes more accessible.
Last month’s exercises are also a sign of increased attention to maritime chokepoints, where peacetime disruptions can turn the global economy and where wartime blockades could allow a military to capture its enemy.
U.S. lawmakers have noted the risk. A provision in a version of the U.S. defense budget for 2022 would require the Pentagon to submit a report on “the security of global maritime chokepoints” against “hostile kinetic attacks, cyber disruptions and other forms of sabotage.”
One message from the Gotland exercise was that if Russia planned to achieve “military superiority by denying NATO access to the region – specifically through the Danish Strait, which is the access point to the Baltic Sea – then we can also match you in terms of speed of response and preparedness”, in Boulègue.
Increased awareness of the Bering Strait and the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap, which is difficult to reach and difficult to operate in, is “very specific to the growing Russian threat,” Huebert said, but it reflects “a growing recognition of the geopolitical concerns that arises between the United States and its allies and China and Russia. “