By Gwladys Fouche
NARVIK, Norway, March 12 (Reuters) - In Narvik harbour in the Norwegian Arctic, the city's chief medical officer watches as dozens of "casualties" are unloaded from a train and get triaged before being transported in ambulances to nearby hospitals.
Thomas Hultstedt is here to observe and learn during an exercise that is part of NATO's biennial drills in the European Arctic, Cold Response, which started on Monday and which this year places more focus on the role of civilians, businesses and public institutions in supporting the military in case of war.
He and other health personnel are rehearsing a scenario in which war has broken out in Finland and U.S. and Norwegian soldiers fighting on front lines, as well as civilians, have to be transported to Norway for medical treatment.
Under the simulation, some 1,200 people are meant to be shipped over the next 10 days to Narvik, though the actual exercise lasts just one day - Thursday - and involves about 100 volunteers, including students, playing the "casualties".
"I have never done this type of exercise before," Hultstedt said minutes before the train arrived at the quay.
"It is good in the sense that you prepare yourself for things that are out of the ordinary. This is very different from normal life. This is a war situation."
The train has come from Finland via Sweden to Narvik, where the volunteers will be "treated" in civilian hospitals in the region. In a real-life situation, they would then be sent on to southern Norway or abroad.
ALL THE NORDICS ARE NOW IN NATO
Hultstedt says this type of exercise was unthinkable five years ago.
"Then Sweden and Finland were not part of NATO... Now Norway has to step up. We must get equipment in and the injured out," he told Reuters.
Finland and Sweden joined the Atlantic military alliance in 2023 and 2024, respectively, following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Norway joined NATO in 1949 as a founding member.
While NATO military planners never refer to Russia by name, the scenario they train for involves an attack from an enemy in the east. Russia lies roughly 600 km (372 miles) to the east, as the crow flies.
Moscow has repeatedly dismissed as baseless fear-mongering suggestions that it might attack a NATO member in the future.
Narvik, an industrial city nestled between a 1,006-metre (3,300 ft) snow-capped mountain and the pristine Ofot fjord, is one of the key places along Norway's coast where NATO allies plan to land if Finland, Sweden or Norway comes under attack.
The train line from Narvik to Kiruna in Sweden, and further east to Finland, is the main way to ship equipment and troops between east and west in Arctic Scandinavia.
Narvik was the site in 1940 of an early battle of World War Two, when Norwegian, British, French and Polish forces pushed back Nazi German troops, before withdrawing when Germany invaded France.
'TOTAL DEFENCE'
Norway has declared 2026 the year of "total defence", the latest move by a Nordic nation to boost civilian preparedness.
"It is very important to narrow the gap between military forces and civil society because in a really critical situation - war - there is a need for a lot of resources," said Elisabeth Aarsaether, outgoing director of the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection.
While Norwegian planners are confident most households are better prepared to cope with war, she said, they are concerned that local authorities are not ready and so are preparing new guidelines.
"We would really like to help them," she said.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche Editing by Gareth Jones)
