I joined the crack Royal Marines operating in Norway – why they are the best fighting force with the latest equipment and sharper training
THE Sun joined the Royal Marines training for war with Russia at their new polar base Camp Viking in Norway.
We dove into the frozen outpost aboard a Commando Force Merlin helicopter before roaring across icy plains on camouflaged snowmobiles.
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Marines on cross-country skis used plastic explosives to blow a bridge into pieces during exercises designed to halt a Russian armored column.
Nearby, comrades are armed with some of the armed forces' best and latest equipment, including upgraded night vision goggles and coveralls to hide from heat dronesspent weeks in harsh conditions where temperatures regularly dropped below -20°C.
Troops of the elite SRS (Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron) had dug secret lookouts beneath the snow where they ate, slept and defecated in bags for days or weeks.
Lance Corporal Liam Ducker, 24, said that was the hardest part weather but joked that one benefit of the cold was that it froze the Marines' poop and kept them from stinking out of their hidden hiding places.
He also said drones had made it much harder to hide, as enemy forces could see tracks in the snow and track heat signatures from snowmobiles and the Viking tracked vehicles the Royal Marines use to travel across the country.
He was part of a 900-strong Royal Marine force defending NATO's northern flank alongside American, French and Norwegian forces more than 200 miles inside the Arctic Circle.
The elite commando force will take charge in Britain's biggest role NATO war games since the end of the Cold War. About 90,000 troops will participate exercise Steadfast Defender to NATO's response to a Russian invasion.
In a refreshing message to the Royal Marines at Camp Viking in Øverbygd, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey warned war was a real possibility.
He said: “These training scenarios are not just scenarios. It's something you might be asked during your career.”
Heappey said that was his own Army career, where he served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was not the same as knowing that “interstate warfighting” might be necessary in the next one ten to twenty years”.
Addressing hundreds of Green Berets, he added: “The world is becoming increasingly volatile and we need you to do what you are doing to remind our adversaries that we have this incredibly high-quality and deadly force. There is a lot of talk about whether it will take off Russiaor Iran.
“If that is the reality, we need to give you the tools to be the very best fighting force you can be, and we are making those arguments in government as strongly as we can.”
Speaking to The Sun, Heappey explained that if NATO went to battle RussiaBritain's main role would be fighting in Arctic conditions, which are the harshest in the world.
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He said: “All roads lead to Britain focusing on our ability to operate in this part of the world Europe.”
He added: “These guys are in an environment that could kill them.
“But not only do they survive in such an extreme environment, they can emerge from their sleeping bags every day and every night ready to kill the king's enemies.”
Heappey also stressed the need for the government to make “tough choices” to ramp up defense spending “as quickly as possible”.
'Ready for anything'
P.M Rishi Sunak has promised to spend 2.5 percent on defense if the economy allows it, but Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Minister of Defense Grant Shapps both said Britain would have to spend three percent on defense if they ran for the Tory leadership.
Heappey said: “In the current geopolitical situation, 2.5 per cent is welcome, it needs to come as soon as possible, and then there will be a discussion about what more the country can spend on defense next. We must be clear. More money for defense, a bigger army, a bigger navy, a bigger air force – but at what cost?
“The public must be ready to have that debate.”
The commandos seemed unfazed by it the challenge.
Corporal Ryan Brennan, of the elite 45 Commando, said: “We are tough people doing tough things in a tough place.
“It doesn't matter what happens in the world. We are prepared for anything.”
Cpl Brennan, 40, said he had fought in temperatures of -34C.
He added: “When the air freezes the hairs in your nostrils, that's when you know it's really cold.
“But once you can deal with the weather, you can deal with the enemy.” As part of the Navy's investments in the Future Commando Force, the Royal Marines, were the first in the armed forces to receive a new generation of 'commando night vision goggles'.
They connect to a system known as the 'enhanced digital environment' that allows pop-up displays in their eyepieces.
Their radios are designed so that soldiers who speak different languages can have commands translated in real time.
And it will be weeks before they receive new rifles equipped with silencers, which the Navy says will be “harder to track and more formidable in combat.”
Warrant Officer Ian Freeman, 51, said good equipment helped but nothing could compensate for the good soldier work.
He said, “You have to master the basic skills to survive, and that's what you get when you train commandos.”
All Royal Marines must undergo a grueling 32-week training course at the Commando Training Center in Lympstone, Devon, which culminates in a 30-mile speed march across Dartmoor.
Lieutenant Colonel Alex Nixon, the commander of 45 Commando, said the threat of war with Russia had made their training even more acute.
He said: “It's easier to train against a clear threat. It focuses the mind.
“This environment forces people to do extraordinary things just to survive, let alone fight, and that breeds a culture and mentality within the command force that allows them to operate anywhere.”
He added: “They are difficult people doing difficult things, and there is nowhere more difficult than the Arctic.”
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