Posted on 11/05/2007 7:54:26 AM PST by Kurt_Hectic
Norway's Chief of Defense Sverre Diesen said Monday that if the current loss of spending power continued, Norway's national defense would be history in 25 years.
Diesen presented Minister of Defense Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen with FS 07 - the study of the next 20 years of Norway's Defense - on Monday.
"If the loss of spending power continues the Defense will be so weakened in 25 years time that only limited units such as the Coast Guard and the Russian border guard will be fully functional - an independent, national Defense will be history," Diesen wrote.
The Defense chief also warned that the effects of ebbing purchasing power would be felt well before this dismal scenario was complete.
The report came with a range of proposals certain to spark political debate from all sides.
FS 07 recommended that military bases be cut back and focused on key bases, with the army and air force operating from northern Norway and the navy from Bergen.
The military report also suggested an eventual merging of the army and National Guard.
The study recommended that a separate military communications satellite be introduced to replace land stations, and that the expensive MTB (military torpedo boat) program be scrapped.
Diesen said that he had the clearest conscience in the world about the scrapping of the costly MTB program before it was even complete.
He pointed out that three successive defense studies had advised against the acquisition of MTBs and made it clear that any loss of face involved should be shouldered by parliamentary politicians that pushed the purchase through in 2003.
Diesen said that the local communities affected by the proposed cuts to bases would likely protest, but that delays would only make things worse. The Defense Chief said he was satisfied with the finding of the government's Defense policy committee.
"When an all-party committee has reached the same conclusion as we have on difficult political issues we take that as security that we have been roughly on target with our recommendations," Diesen said.
Diesen said that he could see no "fundamental deviation on important points" between the two studies.
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Darn, you beat me to the post by 20 hours.
Something else is going on here - it is not as simple as those who write that Norway is abandoning its military or depending upon the US. I haven’t had a chance to ask relatives in Norway. But if you read an article in today’s “Aftenposten”, the Defense Minister Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen is sending additional Norwegian troops to Afghanistan -
’ “It is completely necessary to increase the military presence in the area in order to create security,” Strøm-Erichsen said after the meeting with the parliament’s foreign committee on Tuesday morning. ‘
and arguing that the troops might even be deployed to hotter areas in the south!
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article2087167.ece
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