Russian Airborne Troops practiced their high-altitude parachuting skills in one of Earth’s most extreme environments – above a freezing Arctic wasteland. An exercise of this kind has never been attempted before.
A Russian commando unit has conducted a so-called HALO parachuting operation, a mass jump which saw them dropping out of a high-flying transport plane and free diving to a reasonably low altitude before opening their chutes. This is a challenge in itself, but the paratroopers faced added risks thanks to the location of the jump. The Alexandra Land is an island well beyond the 80th parallel north, the circle of latitude where only the northernmost parts of Canada, Norway and Greenland are located.
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