HEADQUARTERS U.S. ARMY ALASKA, FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska – U.S. Army Alaska’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team demonstrated its ability to rapidly deploy and operate in extreme cold regions this week with the first-ever deployment of Stryker vehicles north of the Arctic Circle November 3-4.
The joint, multi-agency Operation Arctic Pegasus exercised the brigade’s rapid deployment capability, with Air Force C-17 aircraft delivering four Stryker vehicles and approximately 40 soldiers to Deadhorse, Alaska.
The 1-25 SBCT regularly trains to rapidly deploy in support of contingencies across U.S. Army Alaska’s unique area of operation, stretching from the Arctic Circle to the southern reaches of the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere as directed. U.S. Army Alaska hosts the Army’s only two brigade combat teams trained to operate in the world’s extreme cold regions, to include the Arctic. U.S. Army Alaska is the Army’s proponent for extreme cold weather operations and equipping.
The Stryker platoon deployment took place in coordination with the Air Force, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the North Slope Borough. The average winter temperatures in the area range from 23 degrees below zero to minus 11. The record for February low temperature is minus 57 degrees, but in January 1989 nearby Prudhoe Bay hit a wind-chill of minus 96 degrees.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]
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