A week before the New England Patriots clinched the AFC Championship and a spot in this year’s Super Bowl, Marines from 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division were flying internationally on one of the NFL team’s private jets.
Photos posted by the 2nd Marine Division to the military’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service showed at least a dozen Marines arriving in Norway on a plane owned by the Patriots and painted in the team’s livery. The Marines arrived in Norway not for a football watch party but to participate in a large NATO exercise focused on cold-weather operations. The Marine Corps told Task & Purpose that those forces are arriving in a mix of military and contracted civilian planes, including the Patriots’ Boeing 767-300 passenger plane.
Roughly 3,000 Marines are taking part in Cold Response 26, a Norwegian-led cold-weather NATO exercise set to fully begin in March. It’s a major event, bringing in more than 25,000 service members from more than a dozen states, particularly as tensions remain high after U.S. threats of taking over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark. This past month NATO members sent troops to the semi-autonomous territory, with Danish forces being given orders to be prepared to fight if the situation warranted it.
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Threats of an imminent fight over the island seem to have stopped in the last week since the World Economic Forum in Davos, but amid all of that, the United States and NATO partners are still prepping for Cold Response 26. And this past week, Marines arrived for NATO exercises on one of the New England Patriots’ planes that, according to its operator, has the team’s six Super Bowl championship Lombardi Trophies stencilled on its tail.
In the Marine Corps’ own words, “Cold Response 26 is a significant milestone to demonstrate the readiness of a U.S.-based Marine Air Ground Task Force to swiftly assemble and deploy across the Atlantic, be received by Norwegian forces, and conduct operations to enable larger NATO missions.” 2nd Marine Division Marines, under II Marine Expeditionary Force, make up a large part of the American contingent.
It’s not clear how many Marines were onboard the New England Patriots’ private jet, or if the plane was used just the one time on Jan. 19 or multiple times. In a statement to Task & Purpose, the Marine Corps said that U.S. Transportation Command has a contract with Omni Air International to provide charter flights for the military. Omni announced its partnership and operation of the two Patriots planes in 2024, saying they would be used for “team travel and other charter flights, including humanitarian and goodwill flights.”
Cold Response 26 will cover a wide range of training focuses, including coordination between NATO partners, as well as their handling of cold weather, mountainous terrain, and other Arctic challenges. The United States has cold-weather-focused forces, although that expertise is not widespread. High-northern exercises are a regular part of American military training, both domestically and in international territory such as Norway. Alongside the Marines, U.S. Air Force fighter jets, helicopters and other aircraft will take part, as will a Navy Seabee element and members of Special Operations Command, the U.S. military said.
