{"id":67094,"date":"2026-09-07T21:35:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T19:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=67094"},"modified":"2026-09-14T21:23:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:23:54","slug":"the-deployment-of-nato-military-forces-to-the-remote-arctic-island-of-jan-mayen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/09\/07\/the-deployment-of-nato-military-forces-to-the-remote-arctic-island-of-jan-mayen\/","title":{"rendered":"The deployment of NATO military forces to the remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Arctic is a region of vital strategic importance to NATO, as a passage for important maritime routes and a major source of resources.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian Armed Forces' farewell to King Harald V and his important message<\/a><\/rel>
\nThe Spanish Army's Mountain Troops in action in the Arctic region of northern Norway<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

Jan Mayen is a 377-square-kilometer island located in the Norwegian Sea<\/strong>, in the North Atlantic, about 1,000 kilometers from the coast of mainland Norway. It has no native population and only a permanent population of 18 people (in winter), which increases to 35 during the summer. Its inhabitants belong to the Norwegian Armed Forces and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute<\/strong>, which operate a weather station in the settlement of Olonkinbyen. The island has a small airfield at Jan Mayensfield, with a gravel runway<\/strong>, and its personnel and supplies are delivered by C-130 Hercules transport aircraft of the Royal Norwegian Air Force.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
The location of Jan Mayen Island in the Norwegian Sea, in the North Atlantic (Image: Mart\u00ed8888 \/ Wikimedia<\/a>).<\/div>\n

Between August 26 and September 4, three NATO countries conducted a military exercise on Jan Mayen<\/a>, the Operation Atlantic City. The purpose of these maneuvers was to ensure the defense of an island that holds a key position between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom. The exercise involved the Royal Norwegian Navy and Home Guard<\/strong>, as well as the United States Marine Corps (USMC), the US Army, the British Royal Air Force (RAF), and the UK Commando Force (UKCF), specifically the Royal Marines Commandos. You can see here a series of photos published by the USMC<\/a> about this exercise.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

An A400M Atlas transport aircraft of RAF LXX Squadron<\/strong>, ZM420, at the airfield at Jan Mayensfield. This small runway lacks even basic navigational aids, so aircraft sometimes have to return to their bases as they are unable to land due to poor visibility.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The RAF A400M Atlas ZM420 at Jan Mayensfield.<\/strong> This aircraft model has the ability to land on unprepared runways.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The RAF A400M unloading a StrikeMaster missile launcher vehicle at Jan Mayensfield<\/strong>, which has been tested during this exercise on Jan Mayen island.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The StrikeMaster now ashore<\/strong>, with a sergeant from the 10th Marine Regiment in the left door of its cockpit. This Australian-made vehicle, manufactured by Thales Australia, is equipped with two Naval Strike Missiles (NSMs), providing significant mobility for coastal defense against enemy vessels.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

A First Lieutenant of the 10th Marine Regiment next to the StrikeMaster.<\/strong> The United States Marine Corps took charge of testing this weapon system at Jan Mayen.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

A soldier from the 3rd Platoon of the 11th District of the Norwegian Home Guard on Jan Mayen.<\/strong> This remote island was never claimed by any country until 1926, when Norway claimed sovereignty over it after installing a meteorological observatory there. Norwegian sovereignty over the island was confirmed in 1930 by a royal decree from the King of Norway.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Soldiers of the 11th District of the Norwegian Home Guard<\/strong> deployed alongside a road on Jan Mayen, providing security for USMC vehicles. Following the German invasion of mainland Norway in 1940, the island of Jan Mayen remained under the control of the four Norwegian soldiers manning the position. Later that year, a British expedition evacuated these four soldiers and 68 Norwegian sailors from the patrol boat HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen, which had run aground on the island. The weather station was demolished to prevent it from falling into German hands. The Germans attempted to capture it shortly afterward, but were unsuccessful thanks to an intervention by the British Royal Navy.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

An allied military convoy traveling through Jan Mayen.<\/strong> We first see a Mercedes-Benz G240 GD all-terrain vehicle of the Norwegian Home Guard, followed by two JLTVs of the Marines and the StrikeMaster launcher we saw above.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

A soldier from the 3rd Platoon of the 11th District of the Norwegian Home Guard in Jan Mayen.<\/strong> He is seen aiming his Heckler & Koch HK416 rifle, chambered in 5.56\u00d745mm NATO, the current standard-issue rifle of the Norwegian Armed Forces.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

A Norwegian NM201 armored artillery observation vehicle<\/strong>, based on the M-113A2. In front of it we see one of its crew members (on the left), next to a soldier from the 11th District of the Norwegian Home Guard (in the center) and a First Lieutenant from the 10th Marine Regiment (right), consulting a map.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

A group photo of some of the allied soldiers who participated in this exercise.<\/strong> We see soldiers from the Norwegian National Guard, Royal Marines Commandos operators (four of them wearing green berets), members of the 10th Regiment and 1st Air Support Squadron of the USMC, and three soldiers from the 197th Field Artillery Brigade of the New Hampshire Army National Guard (on the right). The photos were taken on August 29. As we can see in the photos, the Norwegian flags were at half-mast because King Harald V of Norway had died the day before.<\/strong> The photo was taken in the area of \u200b\u200bthe island known as Atlantic City, where the Norwegian meteorological observatory was located during World War II.<\/p>\n

---<\/p>\n

Photos: U.S. Marine Corps \/ Sgt. Noah Masog<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Arctic is a region of vital strategic importance to NATO, as a passage for important maritime routes and a major source of resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11550,19534],"tags":[19456,27820,8244,21410,14900,27810,27814,13819,14504,27819,18997,11368,17420,27821,27817,12166,27822,27813,27823,3366,27818,12165,27816,27811,673,318],"class_list":["post-67094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense","category-defense-portada-eng","tag-10th-marine-regiment","tag-197th-field-artillery-brigade","tag-airbus-a400m-atlas","tag-arctic-circle","tag-heckler-koch-hk416","tag-jan-mayen","tag-jan-mayensfield","tag-joint-light-tactical-vehicle-jltv","tag-lxx-squadron","tag-marine-air-support-squadron-1","tag-mercedes-benz-g-class","tag-nato","tag-naval-strike-missile-nsm","tag-new-hampshire-army-national-guard","tag-nm201","tag-norway","tag-norwegian-home-guard","tag-olonkinbyen","tag-operation-atlantic-city","tag-royal-air-force-raf","tag-royal-marines-commandos","tag-royal-norwegian-navy","tag-strikemaster","tag-united-kingdom-commando-force-ukcf","tag-us-marine-corps","tag-us-army"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-11-13 22:05:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}