Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Major Arctic military exercise canceled over coronavirus fears

Shawn Snow and Diana Stancy Correll
















Norwegian soldiers, U.S. Marines, Dutch and U.K. Royal Commandos do an integrated air insert during a training event for Exercise Cold Response 16, March 3, around the city of Namsos, Norway. (Marine Corps)
Norwegian authorities have canceled the remaining portion of a large scale Arctic exercises dubbed Cold Response over coronavirus fears, U.S. European Command announced Wednesday.
“The decision is a precautionary measure in response to the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 and to protect the health and safety of all participants and local population,” EUCOM said. COVID-19 is the official name for the illness.
“The health of our force continues to be a top priority and we are committed to maintaining mission readiness,” EUCOM said.
Cold Response kicked off in Norway on March 9 and was slated to run through March 18. The exercise included roughly 15,000 troops from the U.S., Norway and eight other allied countries.

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