The United States wants its own fighter and patrol aircraft in Norway

US troopsUS troops.Photo: Ned Alley / NTB scanpix

A North American defence memorandum stated that there is a need for more presence of American fighter and patrol aircraft in Norway in peace time, according to Aldmer.no.

 

The website wrote that the request is being considered by the Pentagon Defence Team. The reason that the United States believes that there is a need for US air defence in Norway is that Americans believe there is weak operational ability in the north with Norwegian defence.

If the Norwegian authorities reject the proposal, the memorandum proposed a plan B, which means that the United States draws its defensive line in the north, to the south of Bergen.

The memorandum, dated March the 9th this year, was written by an Analysis and Planning Unit at the Defence Intelligence Agency as part of US defence planning. It summarised various inputs from different parts of US defence. The assessments have been sent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

It discusses how the United States’ future bases, and strength structure should be structured in the light of the establishment of NATO’s new ‘Atlantic Command’.

It appears from the document that there is a need to establish a more permanent American presence at Andøya airfield with eight to twelve US P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft from the US Navy for monitoring Russian naval activity in the North Atlantic and the far North.

Furthermore, it stated that there is a need to strengthen combat aircraft capacity in northern Norway. The United States thinks the minimum should be 20 combat planes in preparation for NATO’s northern flank. The note discussed possible steps that could be used to allow Norway to accept American reinforcements, and perhaps a rotation-based American combat navy squadron.

 

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today