Airborne soldiers in Alaska are taking lessons from the Ukraine conflict and adapting them to their own operations in the uniquely harsh environment of the Arctic, a senior officer said.

Col. James Howell, commander of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 11th Airborne Division, said June 13 in a call with reporters that through constant training in dangerously low temperatures, brigade soldiers are learning the limits and capabilities of their communications equipment, their vehicles and their own survivability.

Based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, the brigade is part of the only Arctic airborne division in the Army and the only airborne division in the Indo-Pacific theater. Its soldiers are equipped and ready to operate in any environment, but their specialty is lethality and survivability in the extreme temperatures of the frozen tundra.

“We see what is happening in Ukraine and are testing things in the Arctic and adapting so that we are more survivable in the Arctic particularly,” Howell said, adding that it takes “a lot of innovation to make sure that we can actually fight and win and sustain ourselves in negative 35 [degrees].”

In addition to using snow machines to move supplies and personnel into deep snow areas, the brigade has been testing new Cold Temperature and Arctic Protection Systems, known as CTAPS, outer layers that are being purchased for the division. Soldiers also are testing cold-weather all-terrain vehicles with the intent to transform two brigades in the division into mobile brigade combat teams, Howell said.

On the premise that “everything breaks at negative 50,” Howell said, the brigade is testing small unmanned aerial systems. “The colder it gets, the more trouble we’re starting to see with some of the equipment,” he said.

Some of that trouble has to do with battery performance, so the brigade is scouring the commercial market “to see what else is out there.” Howell said. “We know there are some systems that work in colder temperatures, that's not something that we've tested yet or purchased at our level, but something that we're looking to do in the future,” he said.

Amid the challenges of ensuring their equipment works, soldiers’ personal survival depends on adapting practical norms for cold weather, such as foregoing shaving, understanding how sweat can kill you if you stop moving and learning that sleeping in a tent that’s 30 degrees regardless of the  temperature outside is considered “comfortable cold,” Howell said.

To enhance knowledge of cold-weather survivability, Howell said leaders are getting certified through a program at the Black Rapids Training Site and Northern Warfare Training Center near Fort Greely and the Donnelly Training Area.

Ensuring troops have enough water “is the most worrisome thing to me while we are out in the field,” Brigade Support Battalion commander Lt. Col. Jessica McCarthy said during the call. Providing water involves moving water buffaloes forward and keeping them in tents with heaters so they don’t freeze. While there are containerized kitchens, McCarthy said soldiers also eat cold-weather MREs.

“We live on top of the world in Alaska, on the forefront of the harshest environments in the world, we do tough realistic training,” Howell said. “For us, it's just kind of another day in Alaska and the extremes of the Arctic.”