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U.S. Army Refines HIMARS Rocket Artillery Tactics to Enhance Arctic Long-Range Warfare Operations.
The U.S. Army confirmed that Soldiers from the 17th Field Artillery Brigade conducted a HIMARS ground-raid live fire during Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center 26-02 in Alaska’s Tanana Flats Training Area. The event advances the Army’s Arctic Strategy by validating long-range precision fires under extreme cold conditions amid intensifying great-power competition in the High North.
On 21 February 2026, the U.S. Army reported that Soldiers from the 17th Field Artillery Brigade had executed a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) ground-raid live fire during Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) 26-02 in Alaska, under extreme Arctic conditions. Conducted in the Tanana Flats Training Area in support of the 11th Airborne Division, the event formed part of a broader effort to operationalize the Army’s Arctic Strategy and to validate long-range precision fires in a polar environment increasingly characterized by great-power competition. The exercise served both as a technical stress test and as a doctrinal laboratory, where tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) for Arctic fires could be refined under realistic constraints of cold, distance and limited infrastructure.
The U.S. Army’s February 2026 HIMARS live fire in Alaska demonstrated how long-range precision rocket systems can operate effectively in extreme Arctic conditions while refining tactics for contested northern theaters (Picture Source: DVIDS / U.S. Army / Britannica)
At JPMRC 26-02, the 17th Field Artillery Brigade executed what the Army describes as an “arctic ground raid” with HIMARS, a concept built around rapid infiltration, swift employment of long-range fires and immediate displacement to avoid counter-strikes. Operating alongside elements of the 11th Airborne Division, the brigade demonstrated the ability to move launchers across snow-covered terrain, establish firing positions in austere locations and deliver precision effects at extended ranges, despite sub-zero temperatures and limited daylight. The scenario replicated a high-end fight in which U.S. forces must project combat power deep into contested Arctic terrain while remaining survivable against peer-level surveillance and strike systems. By embedding HIMARS into a division-level Arctic maneuver scheme, the Army tested how long-range fires and air-mobile infantry can be synchronized in a multi-domain operations (MDO) framework tailored to the High North.
The ground-raid profile allowed the unit to refine several critical TTPs: cold-weather march discipline for wheeled launchers, distributed command and control at long distances, and time-sensitive targeting in a degraded environment. The brigade drilled the full cycle of target acquisition, digital fire-mission processing and rapid salvo employment while contending with snow-limited mobility and reduced communications line-of-sight. Leaders emphasized that such training “forces us to confront and solve complex problems that we simply cannot simulate at our home station,” underscoring the value of live Arctic iterations for expeditionary fires formations. The evolution of these TTPs is directly linked to U.S. concepts such as HIMARS Rapid Infiltration (HIRAIN), which envision launchers being inserted by airlift or maritime platforms, firing and then exfiltrating before an adversary can generate an effective counter-battery or air response.
The exercise placed the M142 HIMARS system at the edge of its environmental envelope. Mounted on a Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) chassis, HIMARS carries a single pod capable of firing six Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rockets to ranges approaching 80–90 km, with newer extended-range variants projected out to roughly 150 km, or alternatively an Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) or future Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) out beyond 300 km. Extreme cold can affect hydraulics, electronic components, fire-control systems and batteries, and the Army report notes that Arctic temperatures froze key components on the launchers, threatening operational timelines. To mitigate these effects, the 17th Field Artillery Brigade relied on close coordination with the 11th Airborne Division and the 354th Operations Support Squadron’s Airfield Operations Flight to secure hangar space, power and heating solutions that kept the systems at operational temperature, thereby preserving the system’s long-range firing capability despite the weather.
The Arctic live fire also fits into a broader operational history in which HIMARS has evolved from a light, rapidly deployable rocket launcher to a central pillar of U.S. and allied long-range fires. Since entering service in 2005, the system has been employed in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, and more recently has demonstrated its strategic impact in Ukraine, where U.S.-supplied launchers enabled precision strikes against Russian logistics and command nodes at ranges previously out of reach for Ukrainian artillery. Exercises in the Indo-Pacific and Europe have already focused on expeditionary deployment, including HIRAIN missions where HIMARS is flown by C-17 or C-130 aircraft to austere airstrips for rapid firing. The Alaska ground raid extends this concept into the Arctic theater, stressing the system’s airliftability, road mobility and shoot-and-scoot profile in deep cold conditions that impose new constraints on maintenance, resupply and crew endurance.
The JPMRC 26-02 scenario showed how HIMARS can serve as a theater fires asset underpinning an Arctic-ready division. When integrated into the 11th Airborne Division’s scheme of maneuver, the system provides responsive, precision fires that can support air assault operations, deny key terrain, and hold adversary assembly areas, airfields and logistics hubs at risk far beyond the forward line of troops. The ability to deliver long-range effects from concealed positions in snow-covered terrain complicates an adversary’s targeting calculus and enhances the Army’s capacity to maintain tempo even when traditional artillery mobility is constrained. In a contested electromagnetic environment, such distributed launchers, linked through joint fires networks and potentially JADC2 architectures, offer a resilient means of sustaining deep fires while minimizing vulnerability to massed counter-battery or unmanned aerial systems.
The exercise aligns with the Army’s Arctic Strategy, which calls for forces that can “regain Arctic dominance” by being trained, equipped and postured to compete and, if necessary, to fight and win in the region. The Arctic is now viewed as a key axis in great-power competition, where melting sea ice opens new maritime routes and reduces warning times for aerospace and missile threats. Long-range land-based fires like HIMARS, deployed from Alaska’s interior to cover critical approaches, chokepoints and infrastructure, contribute to deterrence by presenting potential adversaries with credible, rapidly employable strike options across the Arctic and North Pacific. Exercises such as JPMRC 26-02 and Arctic Edge, which routinely test joint long-range fires in extreme cold, are therefore not isolated training events but practical steps in implementing U.S. geostrategic concepts of deterrence by denial and multi-domain, cross-theater maneuver in the northern flank.
Ultimately, the HIMARS live fire in Alaska illustrates that Arctic training is more than a weather drill: it is a deliberate effort to refine tactics, validate long-range capabilities and ensure that U.S. forces can respond rapidly and decisively in one of the world’s most demanding contested environments. By proving that precision rocket artillery can be deployed, sustained and fired accurately in deep cold alongside air-mobile infantry, the 17th Field Artillery Brigade and the 11th Airborne Division are helping to anchor a credible fires-based deterrent on the northern frontier and to translate U.S. Arctic strategy from policy documents into executable combat power on the ground.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.