U.S. soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division's 3rd Brigade send a convoy from Narvik, Norway, to Evenes, Norway, on April 26, 2024. The unit was transporting vehicles and equipment in Norway, where it began a long-distance road march Tuesday that will take soldiers through Sweden and on to Finland. (Samuel Signor/U.S. Army)
STUTTGART, Germany — More than a thousand U.S. soldiers are making a long-distance trek this week in upper Norway, bound for a Finnish artillery range for drills showcasing stepped-up efforts to defend NATO’s new Arctic border with Russia.
The tactical road march, involving 1,600 soldiers and 200 vehicles from the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Infantry Brigade, will stretch 550 miles across tough Nordic terrain, U.S. Army Europe and Africa said in a statement Tuesday.
The push across Norway, Sweden and Finland serves as “a milestone moment” for an exercise that has featured a series of firsts, USAREUR-AF said.
With this year’s addition of Sweden to NATO and last year’s accession of Finland, the Army is using more seaports to maneuver in the High North and working on logistical initiatives to ensure forces can navigate the terrain.
The road march, which began Tuesday in Narvik and will end in Rovajarvi, Finland, serves as a prelude to exercise Immediate Response 24, which will involve more than 10,400 U.S. and 12,750 multinational troops, the Army said.
U.S. troops also will take part in Finland’s exercise Northern Forest 24 later this month.
For the Army, the convoy across the High North serves as an example of how operations in Europe have evolved over the past 10 years.
In 2015, soldiers carried out a high-profile march from the Baltics to Germany known as Dragoon Ride, which was intended to signal that the U.S. was back in action after decades of cutbacks in Europe.
In the years since, the Army has carried out scores of other similar initiatives intended to highlight its ability to cover swaths of terrain along NATO’s eastern flank.
Those moves came in response to Russia’s 2014 takeover of Ukrainian territory, and efforts have intensified in the wake of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.
With the Nordic march and follow-on training, the Army is proving its ability to coordinate with new NATO allies and “project land power anytime, anywhere,” Finnish army commander Lt. Gen. Pasi Välimäki said in the Tuesday statement.
