User:Noclador/sandbox/Allied Forces South Norway 1989

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Allied Forces South Norway
Active1952 - 1994
AllegianceNATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Part ofAllied Forces Northern Europe, Kolsås, Norway
LocationStavanger, Norway

Allied Forces South Norway (SONOR) was a NATO command tasked with the defense of Southern Norway. SONOR's area of responsibility included all of Norway with the adjacent sea territory excluding the three northernmost counties of Norway, which were under Allied Forces North Norway.

History

Allied Forces South Norway (SONOR) and was activated in 1962 along with Allied Forces North Norway (NON) and Allied Forces Baltic Approaches. Unlike most other NATO commands SONOR was a staffed entirely by members of the Norwegian Armed Forces. Its operational headquarters was located in Stavanger and today houses NATO's Joint Warfare Centre. The commander of SONOR had three deputies: Commander Land Forces South Norway, Commander Air Forces South Norway and Commander Naval Forces South Norway. Incoming allied units would have come under the command of these three deputy commanders.[1]

Structure 1989

In case of war SONOR had the following units at its disposal:

Commander Naval Forces South Norway

Bolærne Fortress 75mm Tornpjäs m/57 automatic gun

Naval Forces South Norway (NAVSONOR) was tasked with the defence of Southern Norway's coastal waters against Soviet naval incursions and amphibious landings. Operations to the South of Norway's coastal waters were under the command of NATO's

Norwegian Navy would have come under other NATO commands, with NAVSONOR retaining control of coastal artillery units and smaller coastal defense boats.[citation needed] NAVSONOR also dispatched a squadron of fast attack crafts to NAVNON on a rotational basis.[citation needed
]

Royal Norwegian Navy Fleet

In 1989 the Royal Norwegian Navy had the following ship and submarines in service. While these units were all based in Southern Norway, in wartime the submarines and frigates might have been dispatched to the various NATO commands defending the North Sea and the Baltic Approaches, while some of the patrol boats would have been sent to reinforce NAVNON in Northern Norway.

All submarines of the navy were under command of the 1st Submarine Flotilla and homeported in

Kobben class submarines with the more modern Ula class
. The Kobben staying in service were extensively modernized.

In times of war the Royal Norwegian Navy would have been reinforced by the

Sea Home Guard
, which manned older vessels taken out of service by the navy:

Additionally the Royal Norwegian Navy would have been reinforced in wartime with three offshore patrol vessels of the Coast Guard:

Commander Air Forces South Norway

Kjeller
Flesland
class=notpageimage|
Norwegian Air Force bases in Southern Norway
Rygge Air Station
during Exercise Coronet Gauntlet '83.
US Air Force F-4D Phantom II of the New Jersey Air National Guard
over Southern Norway during exercise Coronet Rawhide '82.

Commander Land Forces South Norway

US Forces in Southern Norway

US Marine Corps
Norway Air-Landed Marine Expeditionary Brigade (NALMEB) Prepositioning Program material at the Bjugn Cave Facility
See also: Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway

In 1981 the governments of Norway and the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding that in case of war the

REFORGER depots in Germany, the depots in Norway would be underground facilities. Thus between 1985 and 1989 American and Norwegian engineers drilled nearly 63,000 square meters of underground storage tunnels into the mountains around Trondheim. After the sites had been filled with materiel and equipment, Norwegian troops were tasked with its maintenance, with two exceptions: the two stored fleet hospitals were maintained by two small US Navy
detachments.

By 1990 the eight artificial caves were filled with all the equipment and the Norway Air-Landed Marine Expeditionary Brigade could have been deployed to Norway within 48h.[4]

The eight underground depots were:[citation needed]

Additionally the U.S. military maintained a small number of units in Southern Norway in peacetime:

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-333-43931-9
    .
  2. ISBN 0-8330-0960-5
    .
  3. ^ "Service List". Norwegian Navy Veterans. Norwegian Navy Veterans. Archived from the original on 21 June 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  4. ^ "Prepositioning Programs Handbook" (PDF). www.marines.mil. Headquarters Marine Corps. 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2016.