US Green Berets are looking to troops from NATO's newest member as 'mentors' for harsh winter combat

• Finland became NATO's 31st member in April, but it has long worked closely with the alliance.
• Finns are adept at winter warfare, an area of focus for militaries worried about the Arctic.

One of the biggest shifts in European security prompted by the war in Ukraine has been Sweden's and Finland's decision to abandon non-alignment and apply to NATO.

After intense diplomacy, Finland officially joined the alliance in April, becoming NATO's 31st member. Sweden's application is pending, but officials say it will join soon.

Adding Finland doubled NATO's border with Russia to about 1,600 miles overnight, moving alliance territory much closer to some of Russia's most sensitive military outposts.

While much smaller than its eastern neighbor, Finland has a well-equipped military of about 30,000 troops, though in wartime it can call up 250,000 reservists.

Where the Finns truly excel is in winter warfare, and even the US special-operations community is taking lessons from Finnish commandos.

The Utti Jaeger Regiment

Among the Finnish military's small professional force, the Utti Jaeger Regiment stands out. Its nearly 700 professional and conscript troops are divided into a headquarters unit and three components.

The Special Jaeger Battalion focuses on special reconnaissance, direct action, and unconventional-warfare missions. The battalion comprises a company of paratroopers that is largely composed of conscripts and a special Jaeger company of professional troops.

The regiment also has a helicopter battalion that supports Finland's special operators. The battalion operates 20 NH90 medium transport helicopters and seven MD500 light transport helicopters.

Finally, the regiment's support battalion provides logistical support to Finland's special operators. It also trains Finnish conscripts to perform support tasks.

The Utti Jaeger Regiment takes part in about 40 "executive assistance tasks," which likely includes training and real-world missions, each year. But where the Utti Jaeger Regiment really shines is in winter warfare.

Arctic operations

In March, US Army Special Forces soldiers trained with the Utti Jaeger Regiment on winter operations in Lapland, Finland's northernmost region.

Green Berets are no strangers to harsh conditions. The Special Operations Winter Mountain Operator Course, held twice a year at Fort Carson in Colorado, tests the ability of US special-operations troops to fight at high altitude and in severe weather. Green Berets also train regularly in Alaska alongside other elite US military units.

But Finnish forces live in those conditions, and the Special Forces soldiers looked up to them because of it.

The Green Berets saw the Utti Jaeger Regiment "as mentors because they operate in this environment, they live here; they're very good at winter warfare, so we look to them on how to do things the right way," an assistant detachment commander with 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) said in a press release.

Winter warfare is not just about patrolling skills, marksmanship, or small-unit tactics. In such an unforgiving environment, troops must work to stay alive. With a narrow margin for error — exposing skin for just a few minutes can be harmful or even deadly — small mistakes can lead to disaster.

"That one mistake you made with your socks or your glove liners on day one is now making you combat ineffective come day five," the assistant detachment commander said in the release.

The US commandos came to the exercise directly after a five-week winter-warfare course at the Swedish Subarctic Warfare Center and applied skills learned there to the training with the Finns.

US and Finnish soldiers "linked up and focused on interoperability" and synchronization of standard operating procedures, the assistant detachment commander said. "The exercise focused on deep strike operations, or neutralizing a target deep behind the front line."

The 10th Special Forces Group's area of operations is Europe, and Green Berets from the unit work closely with their European counterparts. Indeed, the 10th Special Forces Group has led much of the US's training and advising for Ukrainian special-operations forces.

Although Finland just joined NATO, its special-operations forces have worked closely with the alliance for some time, building interoperability that will allow the Utti Jaeger Regiment to get up to NATO standards in almost no time.

"Working with US forces, I'm really (impressed) with how we went straight from shaking hands to conducting missions in a very short amount of time, which tells a lot about our forces being interoperable and well-suited for combined missions together," a Finnish special-forces soldier assigned to the Special Jaeger Battalion said in the release.

The Green Beret training reflects the US Army's increasing focus on Arctic warfare. In 2021, the Army released a strategy document describing how it planned to defend US national security interests in the region. As a part of that, the Army has solicited help from allies and partners to increase its Arctic warfare capabilities.

Although the US special-operations community has credible Arctic warfare skills and has been honing them, the Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Danish militaries have experts with valuable knowledge and experience.

The Utti Jaeger Regiment's proficiency in winter warfare and its ability to train US and NATO special operators will only increase the alliance's ability to deter and respond to threats.

Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. He is working toward a master's degree in strategy and cybersecurity at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies.