The Navy Seals Just Used Snowmobiles To Meet up With a Freakin' Submarine
Arctic Edge 24
That's one way to catch a ride.
Powersport machines can be incredibly useful things. Whether you're headed out into the backcountry to hunt, need to get around a city quickly, or accessing unknown fishing spots, you can usually go further than most traditional forms of transportation could ever.
And that broad capability has made these vehicles the go-to vehicles of choice for the world's special operations military branches. From motorcycles to UTVs, and everyone from the Rangers to the SAS, these vehicles have been almost everywhere in both training missions and full-on combat.
But a few months back, one particular vehicle did something no group has ever done before. Yep, the Navy SEALs used a handful of snowmobiles in a training exercise to rendevous with a submarine. And that's one of the coolest sentences ever.
According to Business Insider, the operation was part of a joint training drill dubbed the Arctic Edge 24, and it involved the aforementioned SEALs, as well as Army Green Berets, US Army 160th SOAR crews, and a host of foreign allies totaling 400 special operators.
"During one first-of-its-kind training event, special-operations MH-47G Chinook helicopters dispatched SEALs, other special-operations personnel, and snowmobiles onto the Arctic terrain to retrieve and deliver a package dropped from a Lockheed C-130 Hercules plane," states BI, adding, the package would then be given "to the Navy attack submarine Hampton that had breached the [Arctic's] icy surface."
Arctic Edge 24
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This was the first time that special operations forces used snowmobiles to link up with a Navy submarine, which seems cool as hell. The other nations participating in the Arctic exercise included Norway, Canada, Denmark, and the United Kingdom.
Speaking about the exercise, Captian Bill Gallagher of Navy Special Warfare Group TWO stated, "Naval Special Warfare's unique ability to conduct complex operations in the water column, and in maritime domains such as the Arctic, discourages aggression from potential adversaries."
Snowmobiles have been used by the world's militaries for a while now, with them being deployed in Alaska and Canada, as well as European countries closer to the Arctic and Russia. And they make for fast-moving vehicles in dynamic situations, given their ease of use, agility, and speed.
But dropping them out of a Chinook and then linking up with a sub is next-level stuff, but makes sense given the tension that's being felt in the Arctic arena these days. Who's got a Chinook I could borrow?