In the early morning, just as the sun slowly rises up from behind the mountains, gusts of icy wind sweep across the US Army camp, whipping up snow from the ground and the trees in the surrounding forests. It's a bone-chilling cold, one felt even through any protective layers or garments.
Soldiers come and go in and out of tents, some surprisingly wearing just t-shirts, seemingly unbothered by the conditions. One sits outside eating breakfast. The temperature of six degrees Fahrenheit is practically spring weather, they say. Just a week before, it was -40 degrees, temperatures many have never had to endure.
Out on the snow-covered Alaskan tundra, US Army Pacific is pushing its soldiers to prepare to fight in subzero temperatures and hostile, unpredictable environments. It is a challenge unlike anything else in the Army, top generals told Business Insider, and a relatively new training experience that tests 'the mettle of the human,' one brigade combat team commander said.
Earlier this month, USARPAC held its annual Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center training exercise near Fairbanks, Alaska that BI was able to observe firsthand.
Throughout the training, soldiers with the US Army's 11th Airborne Division and troops from over a dozen international allies and partners ran wargames in the Arctic, with one side posing as enemy forces. Troops adapt to freezing temperatures and unpredictable conditions, making adjustments to gear, kits, and equipment in real time.
Some days, the temperature is well below zero, and snow piles feet-deep in fields and forests. Others, the weather is considerably 'warmer' than usual — in the tens or twenties. Snow isn't as prevalent, but the ground remains frozen solid. Any warmer, and it's muddy, caking to boots and vehicles.
'It's a harsh environment,' Maj. Gen. Brian S. Eifler told Business Insider in an in-person interview at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks. 'If something happens in those conditions, you got to have a force that's ready.'
On the ground, soldiers echoed similar sentiments. Some told Business Insider the Arctic was the most difficult environment to fight in, while others noted it took a specific type of mindset to survive there, let alone excel.
'There are not a lot of forces in our Army, or really in our military, that can operate here,' Col. Sean Lucas told Business Insider, calling the JPMRC training an opportunity 'to experiment with how much soldiers can endure' and 'test the mettle of the human.'
JPMRC is the Army's newest combat training center, only a few years old. It conducts rotations in both Alaska and Hawaii every year, giving soldiers the chance to train for combat in both the wet, humid jungle and the icy, harsh Arctic.
Both environments are at the ends of the pendulum of what the Indo-Pacific region has to offer in terms of battlefield conditions, and according to Gen. Charles A. Flynn, USARPAC's commanding general, they are the 'environments and conditions where our forces are most likely to operate.'
The Pentagon has long identified China as the US' 'pacing challenge' and made determined efforts to shift American military focus towards the Indo-Pacific region for a potential conflict there, but the area is also home to Russia and North Korea, presenting a host of possible threats.
US Indo-Pacific Command and its forces have increased their training, particularly with allies, in order to deter enemy forces and maintain the ability to fight across the Pacific should that fail. For many in the Army, it's a major shift in focus from over two decades of counterinsurgency fighting in the Middle East. With great power competition and possible conflict on the horizon, particularly in the Pacific, there are new investments, like JPMRC, to help ensure readiness.
Difficulties of the JPMRC's Alaska rotation are constant and visible everywhere you look.
Equipment breaks, troops have to be ready to combat threats to their health like hypothermia, artillery pieces have to be maneuvered across ever-changing ground conditions, paratroopers land hard on icy, snowy ground. Conditions change on a day-to-day basis, making everything tougher to anticipate. Many things are an experiment, being worked on in real time.
One example is the new cold weather clothing gear, including several layers, or 'levels.' During the JPMRC exercise, troops were giving feedback on the gear, how much of it was needed on a day-to-day basis, and whether it made sense to overdress or remain 'comfortably cold' so as not to wind up sweating too much in the heat of battle.
'Our soldiers here are encouraged to innovate,' Command Sgt. Maj. Joseph Gaskin told Business Insider, explaining that 'we don't have all the answers for this environment.'
When the 11th Airborne Division was re-activated in 2022, Army leadership specifically tasked it with developing 'innovative ways of operating in this environment,' which Eifler has called the 'most challenging' on the planet.
Without a clear guide book on how best to fight in the Arctic, a region for which the Army released its new strategy only a few years ago, troops sometimes make it up as they go.
Soldiers develop new tactics and techniques, exploring what gear is needed or how to fortify a position when there's little snow on the ground. The latter seems to be solvable by chopping down trees and using the wood. And that's not even the half of it.
The Arctic is tough and challenging, but Army leaders said the harsh environment and difficult training produces prepared and pioneering troops unlike any other unit. In a 2022 paper written with another Army officer called 'Forging the Arctic Warrior,' Eifler wrote that 'it takes a special breed of Soldier to thrive in the Arctic.'
Lucas said that if you can handle the Arctic, you can handle anything, telling Business Insider that 'if you can lead, or you can be a soldier in the extreme cold, you can lead or be a soldier anywhere.'
