Westcountry troops endure frozen north

ROYAL Marine Commandos recently undertook their most ambitious and gruelling training exercise to date, spending 10 days in the freezing Arctic Circle in temperatures of -10°C.

- by SARAH LUMLEY

The Bay-Class auxiliary dock landing ship, RFA Lyme Bay, embarked on a two-hour transit through Norwegian Fjords, with a wind chill reading of minus 10 degrees, before conducting a night raid with inflatable raiding craft on a beach as part of a stress testing exercise in Northern Norway under the guise of night.

It was part of Exercise Tarasiss, a 10-day test in the Arctic fjords around Tromsö, in northern Norway, and the largest-ever military drills in the 11-year history of the Joint Expeditionary Force a group of 10 like-minded nations who together aim to react rapidly to security threats across northern Europe, if required.

Tarasiss tested how the UK's Commandos, and Norwegian allies, can, in the event of an attack or invasion, bring leading troops to bear, protect them once they have landed ashore and, critically, keep them supplied for combat using traditional logistics and uncrewed technology.

The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) was established at a 2014 Nato summit in Wales, as a regional security cooperation structure for participating nations.