Military exercises in the High North are increasing in frequency, signaling the region’s importance to the United States and its Allies. The most recent sequence of maneuvers unfolded across eight weeks beginning in March 2026 as Arctic ice hit its annual maximum extent and before the thaw began. Arctic Edge 2026 concluded its Alaska-Greenland cruise missile defense training in mid-March. Overlapping the end of that exercise, Ice Camp Boarfish ran through late March in the Beaufort Sea. At the same time, Cold Response 26 ran in mid-March with 32,500 personnel from 14 nations across Norway and Finland, the first iteration conducted under NATO’s new Arctic Sentry framework.
Exercise Steadfast Deterrence 26, the strategic command-post counterpart focused specifically on the Arctic and High North, took place in May 2026 under NATO’s new AI-enabled warfighting approach. Around the same time, U.S. Navy Task Forces 66 and 68 conducted first-of-kind unmanned systems trials at Ramsund Naval Base, Norway, with the Royal Norwegian Navy. Dynamic Mongoose 26, NATO’s largest anti-submarine warfare exercise in the North Atlantic, closed out the busy two months in the Norwegian Sea, with nine nations participating.
The U.S. 2024 Arctic Strategy directs U.S. forces to train at high latitudes with specific emphasis on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, and NATO’s Arctic Sentry has formalized coordination across all member nations for the entire Arctic operating area. Beyond that documented cause, geopolitical considerations also have resulted in a needed shift in focus toward defending important corridors, including those between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom. The exercises aim to counter Russia’s increasing military activity in the region.
The sustained nearly monthly tempo reflects a deliberate strategic posture change between the U.S. and NATO Allies. Defense experts emphasize the High North is no longer an area where activities occur periodically, but an area where activities occur continuously. Defense architectures built for episodic use no longer are adequate for the environment that exists and deliberate focus seeks to fill those gaps with concrete action.