Norway On The Way To Become Unfriendly Neighbor In Russia’s Eyes

Authored by Peter Korzun via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
Norway is executing a drastic change in its military policy, towards a far more aggressive posture. A total of 330 US Marines have been stationed for a trial period from January at the Vaernes military base east of Trondheim. The deployment marks the first time since World War II that foreign troops have been allowed to station in Norway. Last year, the Norwegian Parliament approved a one-year trial period for the US military presence, including two six-month rotations. Now it is planned to double the Marines presence in the country from 330 to 650 soldiers. Norway and the United States are now discussing the usefulness of continuing this agreement beyond 2017.
The airport in Nord-Trndelag can become a major military air base. The US Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway, already stores large amounts of military equipment in caves. The caves currently hold enough to equip a fighting force of 4,600 Marines. The US military plans to enlarge the stockpile allowing it to store enough weapons and equipment for a Marine Expeditionary Brigade (up to 16, 000 servicemen). Planners are completing an analysis of the current gear cache that should wrap up in the next 12 months.
There are other plans to increase US military presence in the country. Last summer, a study group from the US Navy visited both Andya and Evenes airports in northern Norway to see if they could host American P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Jun 19, 2017.