Combat has changed since Finland's bloody Winter War with Russia, but this classic tactic endures

"Dense forests and deep snow force armies onto narrow roads, and disrupting those roadways can shape the battle. In northern Finland today, soldiers are still training for that reality as they prepare for a potential future fight in the Arctic. Business Insider recently traveled to the snow-blanketed Lapland region and observed the Finnish Army's elite Jaeger Brigade in action as it led roughly 20 NATO soldiers through an annual Arctic warfare and cold-weather survival course."

"Maj. Mikael Aikio, the Jaeger Brigade's Arctic section leader who oversees the course, said in an interview that in the frozen Arctic and heavily forested terrain, vehicles quickly become restricted to plowed roads and narrow supply routes, potential bottlenecks for an invading force if leveraged strategically. That constraint, which is known in warfare as canalization, means large formations can be slowed, isolated, and destroyed if an enemy seizes, targets, or disrupts key stretches of roadway."

Arctic terrain of dense forests and deep snow forces military movement onto a limited network of plowed roads and narrow supply routes. Vehicles and large formations become canalized, creating predictable chokepoints that can be seized, targeted, or disrupted to slow, isolate, and destroy an invading force. Finland's Jaeger Brigade trains specifically for such conditions, practicing Arctic warfare and cold-weather survival to exploit terrain advantages. Historical precedent from the Winter War shows that small, mobile defenders using knowledge of terrain can impose heavy casualties on larger attackers by forcing them into narrow, defenseless, or difficult ground and then engaging them effectively.

Read at Business Insider