US Marines are extending their deployment to Norway, and it’s already irked Russia

The US Marine Corps will extend its training and exercise rotation in Norway through 2018, the Norwegian defense minister said this week.

“We are pleased to announce that— following an initial evaluation of the limited trial-period — we are extending the USMC rotational presence for another year,” Norwegian Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide announced on Wednesday.

About 330 Marines have been in Vaernes in central Norway since January 2017, where they’ve trained with Norwegian and other partner forces for cold-weather operations.

They are scheduled to be replaced by another Marine contingent later this year.

“Our Marines in Norway are demonstrating a high level of cooperation with our Allies,” Maj. Gen. Niel E. Nelson, head of US Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa, said in the release. “The more we train together alongside one another the stronger our Alliance becomes.”

The Marine Corps and Norway have jointly managed weapons and equipment stored in caves there since the Cold War, but the Marine Rotational Force’s deployment to Norway was the first time a foreign force had been posted on Norwegian soil since World War II.

(US Marine Corps video by Sgt. Patricia A. Morris)

 

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Featured image courtesy of USMC