US Marines in Sweden to Prepare Major NATO Exercise

Fall wargames will be largest amphibious exercise in over a decade

Jason Ditz 

Posted onSeptember 5, 2018CategoriesNewsTagsNATO, Norway, Russia, Sweden

The latest in a series of major NATO wargames aimed at Russia, US Marines are in Sweden to gear up for the Archipelago Endeavor, an amphibious wargame across Sweden and Norway which is being described as NATO’s largest in over a decade.

The exercise spans an area full of small islands and coastal areas. Officials say an expected 40,000 NATO troops will take part, and dozens of warships. Exactly how much US presence there will be is unclear, but in preparatory stages, it is only a small number of Marines.

Either way, big NATO wargames in Scandinavia are seen as another hostile action toward Russia. Russian Foreign Ministry officials complained the exercises are meant to practice amphibious landings and offensive capabilities of NATO forces.

NATO doesn’t appear to really be disputing this, having presented the operation as simulating a “high intensity conflict” with a “comparable enemy” in “northern latitudes.” The only such enemy in northern latitudes would, of course, be Russia.

https://news.antiwar.com/2018/09/05/us-marines-in-sweden-to-prepare-major-nato-exercise/