Royal Marines Commandos have refined their expertise in mountain warfare in Slovenia while imparting essential knowledge to NATO partners.
The UK Commando Forces, Britain’s specialists in cold weather and mountain operations, travelled to the picturesque Slovenian mountains for three weeks of rigorous training, preparing for demanding winter deployments in Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
Based out of Bohinjska Bela Barracks, the Commandos embarked on missions within Triglav National Park, located in the northwestern region of Slovenia, which hosts NATO’s Mountain Warfare Centre of Excellence in Poljce. They engaged in a two-week collaboration with Slovenian Armed Forces specialists in alpine warfare, participating in exercises referred to as Triglav Star, a programme they last joined in 2021.
This year’s exercise included participation from allies such as North Macedonia, Spain, Italy, Romania, the United States, Czechia, Poland, and Hungary, with a focus on essential skills including vertical assaults, river crossings, and casualty evacuations, all conducted at high altitudes across challenging terrain under the guidance of Royal Marines and Slovenian Mountain Leaders. The majority of the training took place in the Karavanke Valley, a 120-kilometre mountain range recognized as one of the longest in Europe, situated in the Southern Limestone Alps just south of the Austrian border.
The rigorous training concluded with a tactical exercise in which UK Commando Forces advanced ahead of a multinational NATO brigade, performing critical reconnaissance and screening tasks, which involved providing early warnings of ‘enemy’ movements and disrupting their operations.
“It’s a challenging environment working at these altitudes and exactly why we train our marines here,” said Lieutenant Gordon Pickthall, a Training Manager embedded with the Commando Forces in Slovenia.”
“The Alps offer a far more exposed training area with steeper and sharper terrains compared with our mountainous areas in Scotland.”
“It takes a particular skillset to be able to operate independently in small teams, for the Commando Forces this mountain warfighting ability is a niche but important capability that we provide to NATO.”
UK Commando Force (formerly 3 Commando Brigade) maintains a state of constant readiness to deploy globally on short notice. As the nation’s specialists in Arctic and mountain warfare, they must be prepared to engage in some of the most challenging environments on the planet.
The deployment to Slovenia presented an excellent opportunity to exchange knowledge with allied forces and gain a deeper understanding of how other troops operate in mountainous terrain, thereby enhancing each other’s tactics and methodologies.
During their time in the mountains, the Commandos familiarized themselves with new equipment, including the L403 assault rifles and night vision gear, which are part of an ongoing investment in the capabilities of the Commando Force. This equipment will undergo further testing in Arctic conditions this upcoming winter.
