Joint Viking

Joint Viking is a large and recurring winter exercise held in Norway every second year. It includes Norwegian land, sea and air forces – in addition to troops and units from NATO and its partner nations.

The war in Ukraine has had enormous impact not only for Ukraine, but for the entire global security situation. This demanding backdrop makes our main mission even more relevant: Defending Norway and our values.

At the same time, NATO is the foundation of the Norwegian defence. Our allies therefore need to exercise on deploying to Norway, and they must train and operate along with Norwegian forces under harsh winter condition. This makes Norway and NATO better prepared for any situation in the High North Region

The main goal of Joint Viking is to test the Norwegian Armed Forces’ ability to operate in demanding winter conditions. It is also important for demonstrating our ability to defend Norway.

Additionally, it gives us an opportunity to train Norway's ability to provide host nation support for allied reinforcements, and to operate efficiently with our allies.

The last Joint Viking exercise was held in northern Norway in 2023. In 2017, Joint Viking was held in the Finnmark region. In 2019, the exercise was replaced by the NATO exercise Trident Juncture, held in central Norway in autumn 2018. The Joint Viking planned for March 2021 was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. 10,000 soldiers were to take part, including 3,400 allied soldiers.

In addition to Joint Viking, the Norwegian Armed Forces conduct other large, regular winter exercises in Norway. The other major winter exercise is Cold Response, which is held every two years. The last Cold Response was held in winter 2022.