#NATO is rewriting Arctic defense around one lesson from Ukraine. Under drone-saturated skies, lost ground is hard to retake
🇳🇴 says it is moving from a withdrawal model to a not-an-inch policy in Finnmark — defend from the first centimetre, not return later. 🧵 1/
www.thetimes.com/world/russia... russia’s war showed how hard it is for large forces to move under drone-heavy skies, and Trump cast doubt on automatic US reinforcement.
Cold Response 26 brought 32,000 troops from 14 allies into this new Arctic posture. 2/
Across 120 miles from Finnmark sits russia’s Kola peninsula — one of Europe’s most militarised zones and home to the northern fleet.
Norway’s waters are an early-warning corridor for tracking russian submarines into the Atlantic. 3/
Norway is creating its first permanent brigade in Finnmark, folding Ukrainian defence technology firms into planning, and writing one joint Nordic NATO plan with Finland and Sweden — the first command structure of its kind in 500 years. 4/
Norway is also hedging against US dependence. Its forces still run on American systems, but Oslo is buying submarines from Germany, frigates from the UK and long-range missiles from South Korea.
Under Build with Ukraine, officials say drone production in Norway may follow. 5/
Sven-Erik Volberg