Home Guard (Norway)

Norwegian Home Guard

Emblem
Founded December 6, 1946 (1946-12-06)
Country Norway
Allegiance Norway
Size 45,000
Motto(s) VERNER VOKTER VIRKER
Commanders
Current
commander		 Major General Tor Rune Raabye
Military of Norway
Components
Army
Navy
(Coast Guard)
Air Force
Home Guard
Cyber Defence Force
Ranks
Norwegian military ranks
Bugle calls
Bugle calls of the Norwegian Army
Armed Forces equipment
Army equipment
Norwegian naval ships
Norwegian military aircraft

The Norwegian Home Guard (Norwegian: Heimevernet – "HV"), is a rapid mobilisation force in the Norwegian military. Founded 6 December 1946, it is the second youngest branch in the Norwegian forces after the Norwegian Cyber Force (Norwegian: Cyberforsvaret). It has land, sea and air defense units, and has volunteers and conscript personnel with backgrounds from all branches. Its main focus is local defense and civil support, but it can also detach volunteers for international operations.

Organization

It is divided into districts ("HV-districts"), which again is divided into smaller units, typically covering a single Municipality. In a wartime situation Heimevernet will typically be used to protect the local infrastructure and population, but may also be used as regular troops. As it for the most part comprises locals, it is ideally suited for guerrilla warfare, sabotage, ambushes.

Strength

The Home Guard has a peace time personnel number of 1,200. On high readiness there are 3,500 Rapid Reaction Force personnel, 25,000 "Strengthening Force" personnel and 20,000 "Follow-up Force" personnel. The total Home Guard Force is approximately 56,200.

Troop exchange

The Home Guard does a troop exchange with the Minnesota National Guard every year.[1] The exchange grew from Norwegian American soldiers sent to Norway to assist resistance fighters in World War II. As part of the Exchange, American Guard members are flown to Værnes Air Force Base and Norwegians are sent to Camp Ripley. Troops complete each other's training, and tour the area.

Vessel of the Naval Home Guard

The Rapid Reaction Forces

From 2005, the Home Guard has recruited for a high readiness force with better trained and equipped personnel. It is called the "Rapid Reaction Force" (Norwegian: Innsatsstyrke) This force represents approximately 10 percent of the total force. It consist solely of volunteers.

There is one Rapid Reaction Force per district, in total 3,500 men and women. The Rapid Reaction Force is the speartip of the Norwegian Home Guard, and contains flexible and mobile units. It has top priority when concerning weapons, material and training resources. The force is ready to respond within hours to acts of terrorism, bomb threats, and or other emergencies. In peace time, the RRFs can support the police and civilian community with a variety of tasks, including providing security for the public and enforcing police regulations.

The RRFs are named after operations executed during WW2 by the Norwegian Independent Company 1 (aka Linge Company):

The Naval branch of the Home Guard has four RRFs:

The Rapid Reaction Forces consists of several different platoons within each district. In this way, each district will be able to respond to any kind of incident that could occur, without having to rely on outside help. Each district (with some variations) will have trained operators in these different types of units:

Home Guard districts

Region 1

Region 2

Region 3

Region 4

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Dayton To Head To Norway For Troop Celebration". CBS Local Media. 15 February 2013. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
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