Camouflaged troops from several Nato-member states have been spotted completing training drills in Norway as part of the organisation’s largest exercise series in decades. 

Marines from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Italy and France were seen taking aim along a pebbled beach on Sunday for the Nordic Response 24 military exercise, part of Nato’s “Steadfast Defender” training series.

Norwegian troops camouflaged to the climate at Sorstraumen, above the Arctic Circle in Norway, with snowy camouflaged mesh covering their uniforms and guns. 

Italian soldiers were also seen in position, crouching on the frosted ground. 

Steadfast Defender is a training operation involving air, sea, and land forces, with over 100 fighter jets and 50 ships practising defensive manoeuvres in cold and harsh weather conditions. 

The exercise is explicitly designed to prepare the alliance for a Russian invasion, with Britain having committed around 20,000 soldiers, as well as tanks, artillery and fighter jets to the drills.

A Swedish CB90-class fast assault craft was pictured travelling on water after being boarded by Finnish marines. 

According to Nato, the training exercises will run from mid-January to June and will be “a clear demonstration of our unity, strength and determination to protect each other”. 

In mid-February, HMS Prince of Wales set sail to join the operation – Nato’s biggest since the Cold War – throughout the transatlantic region after being delayed at the last minute.