Have you ever seen a 62-ton behemoth battle machine glide across a snow white landscape of packed wintry ice as if it were a dainty Olympic figure skater?

We hadn’t until we came across the following clip, courtesy of the United States military, where Marine M1A1 tanks and their crews slide on frozen water during an exercise known as “Cold Response” in Norway. It’s an intense training event that covers specialized weather combat and logistics where Marines and their expensive war equipment (and other European troops) test their mettle in frigid environments.

Frigid, as you can see, is the keyword:

This from Foxtrot Alpha:

U.S. Marines and their M1A1 main battle tank crews worked with the Norwegian Telemark Battalion on techniques for driving tracked vehicles in extreme winter conditions.

Cold Response is an air, sea and land large force employment exercise that is held in Northern Norway annually. Thousands of troops from various countries participate and considering the arctic could be a flash-point of the future, the cold weather training is more relevant than ever.