Building camps, building fires to keep warm and making practical use of their weapons in gloves, troops from the UK are learning and training in Estonia's winter climate.
Members of the British Army's 3rd Armored Engineer Squadron, the Royal Artillery and specifically the British Army's 127th Field Artillery and the Royal Air Force's Special Air Group participated in the Cold Weather Management Course near Tallinn, Estonia.
The training, according to a NATO statement, ensures that NATO's multinational battle group in Estonia – with the United Kingdom as a framework nation – is ready to operate in the cold winter conditions of northern Europe. Members of the Royal Air Force currently based at nearby Ämari Air Base - where they support NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission - also took part in the march.
Units of British Army soldiers in a specially selected area where Cold Weather Management training takes place in Estonia, march through snowy forests, practice a serial fire and movement and build shelters, fire pits in the forest.
Speaking to NATO's Directorate of Information correspondent, Sergeant Sykes, chief cold climate operations management instructor, said:
“Operating in the cold is uncomfortable and it's hard work. That old adage of 'getting comfortable with being uncomfortable' is absolutely true here and that's what the Cold Weather Operator's Course is designed for. At the most basic level, it's designed to get people out, get them into the environment, use cold weather kit and gear, and basically be able to function at the most basic level. One of the priorities is survival, building a shelter.
The kids will go through a building shelter, we do a short survival food lesson and we cover fires and water. On the tactical side, they will cover the tactical piece, thus digging into the snow, creating a tactical shelter. We're also going to have the kids do some low-level basic shooting drills just to emphasize the difficulty of handling a weapon system using gloves, wearing gloves and basically practicing here in this environment. Mobility is probably the biggest thing that affects tactics the most in the cold environment and of course on either side of the winter season you have those thaw conditions where absolutely everything becomes slush, and slush and it's very difficult for the kids to move around."
The fact is that although winter is gradually passing, NATO units are increasing in these areas as the staffs of the North Atlantic alliance want to be prepared for any eventuality since they consider Putin as a completely unstable factor.
