“For the entirety of the Cold War there were no US Troops in Norway.”
This assertion is incorrect, U.S. Marines routinely trained in Norway during the Cold War. The Marines will be on a semi-permanent rotation to Norway which has plenty of challenging terrain in which to conduct tactical training,
“The US has no interests in Norway.”
Again incorrect.
Norway sits adjacent to routes Russian warships and military aircraft, to include submarines, must take to reach the open ocean. This is critical to protecting our lines of communication with Europe during a crisis.
It is also a longstanding ally of the U.S. with whom we have a binding mutual defense treaty relationship.
Roger that. I hate to burst bubbles, but I was stationed in Oslo from 85-89. We had an Air Base Squadron located there which supported HQ AFNORTH, a NATO base at Kolsaas. We provided all base services. But, of course, we weren’t permitted to show the flag, and we weren’t permitted to have any signs, to maintain the fiction of Norway’s no-basing policy. The funny thing was, when you climbed into a cab and asked to go to the US Element, all the cabbies knew where we were.
The Marines exercised in Norway during my time there. We have bilateral agreements with a lot of our NATO allies. In Norway’s case, they’ve allowed the pre-positioning of war materiel at various points throughout the country. The concept is we fly our Marines in and marry them to the war materiel if the balloon goes up.
There has not been a permanent deployment of any troops to Norway since WWII.
As for guarding the Sea Lanes of Communication...specifically the exit from Russia’s Murmansk...that is a task for naval and air forces and Marines and/or Army forces would have no role in that.
As for the mutual defense treaty (NATO), Norway does not honor it.