The Norwegian Minister of Defense visited the Luke Air Force Base in Arizona on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, and proclaimed that “The strong transatlantic unity is more important than ever before.”

Luke Air Force Base is where Norwegian pilots are training to fly F-35 fighter jets. The first F-35s will arrive in Norway next year, and Monday the Norwegian Minister of Defense, Ine Eriksen Søreide, visited the base.

Last week, on Fri. and Sat., Dec. 2 and 3, Søreide participated in the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley. She took part in a panel discussion and met with Gen. Robert B. Neller, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and Hon. Leon E. Panetta, Former US Secretary of Defense, among others.

“This is an excellent opportunity to promote Norwegian views on important issues,” said Søreide.

During her visit to America, the Defense Minister emphasized the need for continued strong security cooperation between Norway and the United States and the importance of a clear, firm and united approach toward Russia.

“Given the changes in the security policy environment, solidarity, both transatlantic and within the NATO alliance, is more important than ever before,” the Defense Minister said.

(norway org)

The Netherlands will join Norway on the development of the brake chute for the Lockheed Martin F-35, the Norwegian government confirmed last week.

In a 25 November bill presented to the Norwegian Parliament, the Dutch government agreed to pay Norway 96 million NOK ($11.4 million) to cover their share of development costs. That cost share will allow the Norwegian government to redirect those funds to cover general expenses related to the Norwegian acquisition of the F-35, according to a post by the minister of defence.

The $11.4 million constitutes an initial contribution from the Netherlands, which will eventually cover their share of aircraft receiving the drag chute, a Norwegian spokesman tells FlightGlobal. The Netherlands has only committed to preparing aircraft for the drag chute mounting and the initial contribution covers the development of the modification.

While most international partners’ F-35s are indistinguishable from the US fighters, Norway and now the Netherlands will incorporate drag chutes to help the aircraft land on icy runways. The fairing for the chute will be mounted on the back of the aircraft between the aircraft’s two vertical tails, the Norwegian spokesman says.

“Though relying on the aircraft’s hydraulics for power, it is a separate add-on system with its own wiring and hard points,” the Norwegian government says in a statement. “The benefit of the system is that it makes it both easier and safer to operate the F-35 on slippery runways, as we often will be doing in Norway during the winter months.”

Lockheed will test the brake chute at Edwards AFB, California this summer and will begin testing on icy runways in Alaska in late winter 2017, a company spokesman tells FlightGlobal. Norway is aiming to have the capability qualified by the time the country receives its first aircraft in November 2017, according to a Norwegian spokesman.

Canada also expressed interest in the modification, FlightGlobal reported in 2014.

(flight global)

Norway urged U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to adopt a clear and predictable policy on Moscow at a time of heightened tensions in Europe due to Russian aggression in Ukraine and the growing presence of Russian military activities in the Arctic region.

“What is most important to us right now is to have both a predictable and a very clear policy on Russia,” Norwegian Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide told Reuters Friday, ahead of the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in California. “The earlier and the clearer that the new administration comes out with this, the better it is, also for European security.”

On the campaign trail, Trump had said he was open to working closely with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin had called Trump to congratulate the real estate mogul on his victory, during which the two leaders agreed to take steps to improve Moscow’s ties with Washington.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg also spoke to Trump Thursday voicing her concerns about Trump’s comments on Russia and his take on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which he called “obsolete” and also threatened to withdraw U.S. funding for NATO.

During the call, however, Trump reassured Solberg of U.S.’s commitment to NATO and security in Europe.

Oslo is concerned about Russia’s latest improvements to its defense system, including testing news missiles, upgrading existing equipment and using quieter submarines which are more difficult to detect. U.S. and NATO officials said this high level of Russian submarine activity was last seen during the end of the Cold War in the 1990s.

“They are effectively capable now of closing off allied reinforcements, which of course is a huge strategic challenge,” Soereide said.

Russia taking over the GIUK gap – the maritime line between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom which was a defensive perimeter for NATO during the Cold War – would prove to be an obstacle for NATO forces to step in to help Norway in event of a conflict.

Meanwhile, Oslo is also upgrading its defense system with the proposed addition of five Boeing Co P-8A maritime surveillance planes that would help Norway track Russian submarines. Oslo is working closely with London in monitoring the situation.

“They have been reestablishing their ‘bastion’ defense concept,” Soereide said referring to a strategy adopted by the Soviet Union during the Cold War in which Moscow heavily defended maritime areas like the Barents Sea. “They have to a great extent shown that this area is strategically even more important to the Russians now than it used to be.”

Sweden, like Norway, is also increasingly worried about perceived Russian aggression in the region, internal Swedish documents revealed. Stockholm has not ruled out a possible threat of the use of military force by Moscow. Meanwhile, 16 European countries led by Germany are working together to push for a new arms control agreement with Russia in the hopes of preventing an arms race in Europe given the heightened tensions.

(ibtimes)

A group of Norwegian sea cadets have been visiting the isles as part of a tour onboard the sail-training vessel, Statsraad Lehmkuhl.

The class of 77 from the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy this week paid tribute to those lost in the in Second World War with a ceremony at the Lerwick War Memorial.

During its tour the group has taken the name Uredd, after the Norwegian submarine crew of P41 Uredd, which was believed to have been sunk in a German minefield in February 1943.

Crew-member Renate Back Brandvik said the cadets were eager to honour the memory of the submarine’s crew after hearing her last port was Lerwick.

Prior to their arrival in the isles the crew were on a traditional cadet’s leadership course which saw them sail from Norfolk, USA, across the Atlantic.

Their stop-off in Lerwick comes ahead of their return to Bergen.

But they have made it this far in record time.

“On our way over here from Norfolk we participated in the Boston Tea Pot Challenge, where we were supposed to go by sail as far as possible within 124 hours.

“The old record was 1,462 nautical miles in 2013. This year we broke that record with no less than 1,555 nautical miles in the same amount of time, which we are extremely proud of.”

(shetland times)

• Photo courtesy of Shetland Islands Council.