US stationing tanks and artillery in secret Norwegian caves

Amidst renewed tensions between NATO and Russia, US Marines are stationing battle tanks, artillery and logistics equipment inside climate-controlled Cold War-era caves in Norway.
"Any gear that is forward-deployed both reduces cost and speeds up our ability to support operations in crisis, so we're able to fall in on gear that is ready-to-go and respond to whatever that crisis may be," Colonel William Bentley, operations officer for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, said in a statement.
Russia shares a 195-km long border with Norway. The border was heavily militarised during the Cold War, and the Russian navy's Northern Fleet is in Murmansk, about 160 km from the border.

The caves are located throughout central Norway. The storage of American equipment there first began in 1981 during the Cold War in an effort to bolster NATO's defenses against the Soviet Union, according to the Marines statement.
The secured cave complex is a modern and robust facility, staffed by about 100 Norwegian and US personnel, and it contains enough equipment to support 15,000 Marines.
The deployment of new equipment to the caves comes amid renewed tensions between NATO and Russia, CNN reported.

Heather Conley, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Europe Programme, said changes in the geopolitical landscape had once again made the caves a strategic asset.

"Now that we have a very new security context with Russia, it now makes sense to rethink what is needed," she said.
Conley said the new military exercises were critical to ensuring that NATO could test its equipment and personnel in cold weather environments.
Some 6,500 pieces of the equipment in the cave will be used in an upcoming training exercise, Cold Response 16, which will take place later this month, the Marines said.
The announcement comes just days after the US announced it was spending USD 3.4 billion for the European Reassurance Initiative in an effort to deter Russian 'aggression' against NATO allies.

President Barack Obama has sought to affirm America's commitment to NATO ever since Russia annexed sections of Ukraine in 2014, causing alarm in other neighbouring countries, some of which belong to the military alliance.