Norwegian Armed Forces


The Type-212CD is a joint project between the German and Norwegian governments. The order for six submarines (2 for Germany, 4 for Norway) is worth around 5.5 billion euros. German shipbuilder Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) is working with a Norwegian partner, Kongsberg. The first boat will be laid down in 2023 and delivered to the Norwegian Navy in 2029. Meanwhile the German Navy should get its first boat in 2032.


Outline specifications published by TKMS show the size of the new submarine. It is much larger than the current Type-212A, with surface displacement increased by an incredible 65% from 1,524t to about 2,500t. Length is increased by nearly 30%, from 57.20 m (188 ft) to 73 m (240 ft). And the width is increased by nearly 50%, from 6.8 m (22 ft) to 10 m (33 ft). Height is also increased by 2 m (6.5 ft).


One of the driving factors for the increase in size is that the submarine is now enclosed in a large outer hull. This is shaped to reduce boat’s sonar signature. Other benefits from the increase have not been published. We can guess however that it might carry more weapons, have a second diesel generator, and be able to operate for longer. There are rumors of a vertical launch system fore the Norwegian boats, to be armed with the NSM missile. This is currently unconfirmed however.


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The first Norwegian P-8N Vingtor.

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The P-8N will replace both the P-3N MPA and DA-20 electronic support aircraft, the later having been in service for 40 years. The two DA-20s currently in service have wracked up 25,000 flight hours each. Their service has seen them support combat operations in Iraq, Lebanon, Serbia and Croatia, Afghanistan and deployments across Europe.

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Nordic Air Chiefs from Sweden, Finland and Norway compete in a friendly shooting match. Interesting contrast in camo between the three partner nations, eh?

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Lucky guys, live in friendly neighbourhood. Nice to see such high level officers taking part in confidence building and friendly exercises.
Which blocks are they? Pakiees are literally drooling over these to get them by any means possible.
 
Posting it here since there is no dedicated thread for Swedish Armed Forces



Just the other day, four Swedish Air Force officers received Air Medals from the U.S. Air Force for a Cold War mission that had remained classified until just last year. On what might have been just any other day in 1987, they had helped escort a stricken SR-71 Blackbird spy plane through Sweden’s airspace and on its way to safety, potentially shielding it from any marauding Soviet aircraft.
Swedish Air Force Colonel Lars-Eric Blad, Major Roger Moller, Major Krister Sjoberg, and Lieutenant Bo Ignell got their medals during a ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden on Nov. 28, 2018. The U.S. military as a whole awards Air Medals for singular acts of heroism or other particular meritorious achievements during a flight. Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonels Duane Noll and Tom Veltri, the pilots aboard the SR-71 during the Cold War incident, were also present.


The Swedish aviators also received a painting depicting the event. The Swedish Armed Forces, or Forsvarsmakten, released a picture, seen at the top of this story, of the SR-71 that Ingell had taken at the time.
“We will never know what would or could have happened, but because of you, there was no international incident. The U.S. Air Force did not lose an irreplaceable aircraft, and two crew members’ lives were saved,” Noll said during the medal presentation ceremony. “Thank you for being highly skilled and dedicated patriotic fellow aviators.”

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USAF
From left to right, Swedish Air Force Colonel Lars-Erik Blad, Major Roger Moller, Major Krister Sjober and Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Tom Veltri during the medal ceremony at the US Embassy in Stockholm.
On June 29, 1987, Noll and Veltri took off from RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom for missions in the Barents Sea and Baltic Sea, flying at high altitude and using a slanted flight path to gather imagery inside the Soviet Union from international airspace. This would allow the plane to grab imagery of various important sites, including Soviet military facilities in the Kola Peninsula and around the Baltic Sea.
During the “Baltic Express” portion of the mission, one of the SR-71’s engines suffered a catastrophic failure. It was not the first time one of the Air Force's Blackbirds had experienced engine trouble while flying in the region.

The plane dropped more than 24,000 feet in a matter of minutes and ended up in Swedish airspace as it turned away from the Soviet Union, according to the Forsvarsmakten. The engine failure wasn’t the only issue the pilots were worried about, though.
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NASA
An SR-71 Blackbird.
The Soviet Union had long made it clear that it would shoot down American intelligence gathering aircraft if they penetrated its airspace, making the point particularly felt with the shootdown of CIA pilot Gary Powers in his U-2 in 1960. Soviet fighter jets also aggressively challenged U.S. spy planes operating in international waters, something present-day Russia continues to do, as well. There is an inherent risk of airspace violations in the narrow confines of the Baltic Sea region in general and Soviets might have been able to argue that the SR-71 had intruded into their territory, if only briefly, as a justification for trying to bring the stricken plane down.
“We did not know who would find us first,” Veltri said, adding that he and Noll were concerned about marauding Russian fighters. He continued on to say that he and Noll were thrilled to see the Swedish pilots in their distinctive Saab Viggen fighter jets and were sure from that point on that Soviet jets would keep their distance. Sweden wasn’t and still isn’t a member of the NATO alliance, but has historically found itself more aligned with the bloc than not. During the Cold War, the Swedish military actively patrolled the country’s air, land, and sea borders for intrusions from either side, though.

“We were performing an ordinary peacetime operation exercise,” retired Swedish Air Force Major Moller said at the medal ceremony. “Our fighter controller then asked me, ‘are you able to make an interception and identification of a certain interest?’ I thought immediately it must be an SR-71, otherwise he would have mentioned it. But at that time I didn’t know it was the Blackbird.”
Moller and Sjoberg were the first on the scene, confirming that it was an SR-71 and that it appeared to be experiencing some sort of malfunction. Noll and Veltri also eventually switched their plane’s transponder to issue the code “7700,” indicating an in-flight emergency.

Running low on fuel, Moller and Sjoberg had to return to base, turning things over to Blad and Ignell who had scrambled to relieve them. The Viggens remained at a safe distance from the SR-71, but continued to follow the Blackbird as the crew descended and reduced speed. It was unclear, initially, to the Swedish pilots if their American counterparts would be able to maintain control or would have to bail out.
Noll and Veltri were able to get the plane out of Swedish airspace on one engine. After that, they flew into Denmark, a NATO country, and from there into what was then West Germany, another member of the bloc. The Air Force pilots were able to make an emergency landing at the German Navy’s Nordholz Naval Air Base, situated on the North Sea.

With the SR-71 safely recovered and the Swedes agreeing not to reveal the extent of the incident publicly, the event remained classified along with the Blackbird’s other operations. The details of the mission became unclassified in 2017 after a standard 30-year declassification period. This also meant that the Air Force could finally honor the Swedish pilots for rending assistance at the time.
“That day in 1987 showed us that we can always count on our Swedish partners in times of great peril,” U.S. Air Force Major General John Williams, who serves as the Mobilization Assistant to the head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) and Air Forces Africa (AFAFRICA), said at the ceremony, where he personally presented the medals. “Even when there was both political risk and great physical risk in the form of actual danger, there was no hesitation on your part to preserve the pilots on that day.”
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USAF
U.S. Air Force Major General John Williams speaks during the medal ceremony in Stockholm.
These sentiments are equally important today given Russia’s increasingly assertive actions in and around Scandinavia and the Baltic region, as part of that country’s shift to a more aggressive foreign policy in general. Russian jets have aggressively intercepted American intelligence aircraft in international airspace in the region in recent years, some of which fled into Swedish airspace.
The Kremlin has also violated Sweden’s airspace itself. All of this has increasingly led to discussions in Sweden about potentially joining NATO, which has, in turn, drawn sharp rebukes from Russia.
 


As the historic Norwegian airbase at Bodø, located within the Arctic Circle, closes down today as a fighter jet station, it’s a good time to look back at one of the more secretive aspects of the base. It played the role of a vital node in the early days of the U-2 spy plane. Ultimately, this little-known chapter in aerial espionage came to an end on May 1, 1960, when a U-2 flown by Francis Gary Powers was shot down by a surface-to-air missile deep over Soviet territory. Powers had been due to complete his flight by landing at Bodø, but the international incident that followed his shoot-down led to the abrupt termination of such deep-penetration missions.
Bodø, more formally Bodø Main Air Station, was for many years one of the most important fighter bases for the Royal Norwegian Air Force, or RNoAF, most recently operating F-16s. With the continued arrival of the F-35A stealth fighters, 52 of which are on order for Norway, the base today lost its fighter mission and the Joint Strike Fighter has assumed quick reaction alert (QRA) duties.


While the military use of the airfield at Bodø dates back to before World War II, the base really came into its own with the start of the Cold War, thanks to its strategic position close to the border with the Soviet Union. The distance from Bodø to Russia's massive naval base and port at Murmansk is just 500 miles, and with Norway becoming a founder member of NATO in 1949, work soon began to expand the airbase as a springboard for alliance airpower on the Northern Front.
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NASA
A CIA-operated U-2 carrying fictional National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) insignia and numbers in an effort to conceal its true mission. This photo was released in May 1960 after Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union during a CIA spy flight. An accompanying press release provided a cover story about a U-2 conducting weather research that may have strayed off course after the pilot reported difficulties with his oxygen equipment.
Ultimately, a great deal of Bodø’s strategic value would come to be derived from its proximity to the Soviet Northern Fleet, which would eventually possess most of that country’s ballistic missile submarines and significant surface forces. Before then, however, the Soviet nuclear deterrent relied on manned bombers and early intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Since the first Soviet ICBMs still lacked the range to reach all potential targets in the United States, they had to be located in the far north of the Soviet Union, from where they would be launched on a polar trajectory.
The first Soviet ICBM — in fact, the first anywhere in the world — was the R-7 Semyorka, known in the West as SS-6 Sapwood. It shared the same technology as the rocket that launched Sputnik 1, as well as the Vostok and Soyuz space-launch vehicles, among others. When the Soviets began to construct an operational launch site for SS-6 ICBMs at Plesetsk, near Arkhangelsk, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was understandably eager to learn more.

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NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE
A reconnaissance photograph taken by a U-2 showing an SS-6 Sapwood launch pad at the Tyuratum missile test center in Kazakhstan.
The CIA’s attention turned to gathering aerial espionage with overflights by its U-2s over the northern reaches of the Soviet Union, and they requested the use of Bodø for this new mission. Norway agreed on the basis that these flights would not penetrate Soviet airspace. The CIA provided this guarantee, but, with Presidential approval, its U-2s were still able to conduct clandestine overflights of the Soviet Union. For now, though, the Norwegians were kept in the dark.
As well as the ICBM base at Plesetsk, there were concerns that the Soviets were also rapidly improving their air defenses, which would make them better able to protect their northern frontiers against incursion by U.S. Air Force strategic bombers. A chief item of interest in this regard was the PRV-10M, or Patty Cake, a height-finding radar associated with the SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile.

In 1958, the still highly classified U-2 was determined to be the best platform to discover more about Plesetsk and developments in Soviet ground-based air defenses. In addition to its array of optical cameras, the aircraft carried electronic intelligence (ELINT) equipment that would be able to gather emissions from the Patty Cake system, while its high-altitude performance was expected to guarantee not only its safety but also more extensive coverage.
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U.S. AIR FORCE
Technicians load a type A-2 camera set into a U-2’s equipment bay. This camera configuration was used on the first U-2 Soviet overflight on July 4, 1956.
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U.S. AIR FORCE
Composite image showing elements of cameras similar to the A-2 set. Cameras used in the early U-2s were capable of photographing objects as small as two feet across from a height of more than 12 miles.
By May 1958 the CIA had decided on a two-track approach for the northern U-2 missions from Bodø. One route would take the aircraft across the Barents Sea for overflights of Plesetsk, requiring Presidential authorization, while the other was less sensitive and would see the aircraft operating over international waters in the Gulf of Finland. To provide a cover story for the Norwegians, the CIA asserted that the U-2 missions were related to atmospheric sampling in the wake of Soviet nuclear tests taking place at Novaya Zemlya. In any event, this would turn out to be partly true, although weather reconnaissance was an early cover story for U-2 operations.
It seems the Norwegians very likely understood that there was something more to the U-2 missions, despite reassurances they would not involve overflights. The head of military intelligence in Oslo, Col. Vilhelm Evang, was of the opinion that more information should be provided to explain any future such CIA missions. At the same time, the Americans also distrusted Evang, who some officials alleged was a communist.

Despite reservations, the CIA launched Operation Baby Face in August 1958. A month later, the first of three U-2s involved in the mission touched down at Bodø and soon began local training flights. As well as the U-2s, a total of 16 or 17 transport aircraft — mainly U.S. Air Force C-130s — were also involved as support assets.
Two operational flights took place over the Barents Sea in October 1958 but didn’t involve overflights. The first of these was genuinely used for sampling near Novaya Zemlya. The second was planned as an overflight, but had to be aborted after the CIA pilot noticed fuel was running low. However, by approaching close to Soviet airspace, the U-2 put Soviet air defenses on alert, with transmissions being picked up in turn by the Norwegians. Once again, Norwegian officials became concerned about the nature of the U-2 missions.
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U.S. AIR FORCE
The pilot of an early U-2s wearing an MC-3 partial pressure suit, worn underneath a standard flying coverall.
By November, the weather was deteriorating, and the CIA decided to launch one last mission in the direction of Leningrad, with the aim of approaching as close to the city as was possible, while remaining in international airspace.
With CIA pilot John Shinn at the controls, the U-2 launched from Bodø on Nov. 6, 1958, fitted with long-range fuel tanks that would allow it to fly all the way to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. The Norwegians were not informed of the departure. The spy plane was detected by Soviet radar when west of Pechenga on the Finnish-Soviet border. It then continued south through Finland, into the Gulf of Finland, and toward Leningrad. The U-2 then turned west again, through the Gulf of Finland and over the Baltic Sea.
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GOOGLE EARTH
A map of key locations involved in Operation Baby Face.
Soviet air defense radar mistakenly identified the U-2 within its airspace in Estonia, leading to five MiG-19 Farmer interceptors being scrambled from their bases in Estonia and Latvia. The Soviet fighters topped out at 53,800 feet, leaving the U-2 unscathed at its perch of over 60,000 feet. The U-2 continued its mission, flying over West Germany, Italy, and Greece, before landing at Incirlik. The CIA later estimated that a total of 57 Soviet fighters were launched against Shinn’s aircraft at different points during the mission, providing a valuable ELINT windfall.
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U.S. ARMY
A Soviet MiG-19 fighter of the type that tried to intercept the U-2 flight from Bodø on Nov. 6, 1958.
While the November 6 flight brought good intelligence results, the fact that it was a CIA mission led to displeasure in the Air Force, which saw missions of this type and in this region as part of its remit. The Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed, even though Air Force U-2 missions were not permitted to overfly Soviet territory so were inevitably more limited in the intelligence they could target.
As it was, the November 6 flight was the last by a U-2 involving Bodø until the ill-fated Powers mission of May 1, 1960. As is well known, that U-2 flight was fated never to reach its Norwegian destination. It was, of course, an SA-2 Guideline — one of the systems that Operation Baby Face hoped to discover more about — that blasted Powers’ U-2 out of the sky over Sverdlov.

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U.S. AIR FORCE
Francis Gary Powers (right) with U-2 designer Kelly Johnson in 1966 after Powers’ release by the Soviet Union.
The U-2 crisis of May 1960 saw relations between Oslo and Washington sour. As soon as it became clear that the CIA was using Bodø to fly over the Soviet Union, Norwegian officials requested that U.S. personnel supporting the missions leave the base. Such was the hurry for the CIA team to leave the installation that they departed, together with their equipment, using an available U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules with only three working engines.
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U.S. AIR FORCE
Early U-2 testing at a remote dry lake in Nevada nicknamed “The Ranch.” Disassembled aircraft were airlifted in pieces from Lockheed’s Burbank, Calif., plant to the Ranch and assembled there. The Ranch is now known as Area 51.
While overflights of the Soviet Union came to an end, the U-2 remained engaged on vital intelligence-gathering missions elsewhere in the world, a role in which it continues to excel to this day, despite more than one effort to retire it.
In the years after the U-2 incident, Bodø served primarily as a fighter base for the Royal Norwegian Air Force, or RNoAF, although on at least two occasions it became an emergency landing site for SR-71 Blackbird spy planes. Successive generations of RNoAF fighters — F-84G Thunderjets, F-86 Sabres, F-104 Starfighters, F-5 Freedom Fighters — all served at the base, which would have been expected to host other NATO assets to protect the alliance’s northern flank in times of crisis.

NATO funded infrastructure improvements at Bodø, including dozens of underground hangars to protect aircraft against Soviet attack. Meanwhile, the resident fighters kept a near-constant watch on Soviet military activities in the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea, frequently intercepting aircraft and shadowing naval maneuvers.
Bodø’s fighter mission has now finally come to an end with the stand-down of the RNoAF’s F-16s at the base. From now on, air defense duties, including quick reaction alert (QRA), will be handled by the service’s F-35s. These will be stationed at Ørland, in central Norway, with a detachment at an advance base at Evenes in the north. In the future, Evenes will also host RNoAF P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft and will become a much more important installation as Norway continues to address the resurgent military threat posed by Russia. As for the F-16s, some of these have been snapped up by adversary air support contractor Draken International, while the Romanian Air Force has made moves to secure 32 of the others.
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FORSVARET
A RNoAF on quick reaction alert duty at Bodø.
From now on, the only regular military aircraft activities at Bodø will involve a small detachment of search-and-rescue Westland Sea King helicopters of the RNoAF. But with such a rich Cold War heritage behind it, and with the Norwegian Aviation Museum on the same site, the legacy of Bodø Air Base is unlikely to be forgotten.
With thanks to Robert S Hopkins III, whose forthcoming book, Crowded Skies: Cold War Reconnaissance over the Baltic, provides more details of the U-2 operations from Bodø.