LUFTFORSVARET 60 ÅR
RNoAF IN THE YEAR At a time when the Royal Norwegian Air Force celebrates its 60th anniversary, the customary thing to do is to look back and reflect on six memorable decades. Considering that air power today is in a period of great transformation,
TEKST:
Joris Janssen Lok International Editor, Jane´s International Defense Review
I
It is June 2044. Norway’s air force is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a big air display over the Oslo Fjord. The world as we knew it in 2004 has changed quite a bit. Almost half-way through the 21st Century, the international society has arrived at a point where a Permanent Coalition of around 40 prosperous nations has been mandated by the United Nations to provide a rapid-reaction crisis response force. This global force is set up much like a firefighting organisation with operating bases, prepositioning and staging areas at many locations around the world. It is designed to provide a military first-response capability to provide relief in case of major natural or man-made disasters; to counter international terrorism, organised crime or piracy; and to contain and stabilise local conflicts that threaten regional stability. The Permanent Coalition is comprised mainly of the nations coming from the circle of NATO and/or the European Union, plus over a dozen countries located elsewhere in the world, including Russia and nations in the Asia Pacific region, the Persian Gulf, South Africa and South America.
ACTIVE MEMBER Norway, coming from a long tradition of NATO-membership and promotion of international peace and stability, is an
44 LUFTLED
nr. 2 juni 2004
looking into the future is a lot more difficult. Based on speculation as well as educated guesswork, Luftled takes you to 2044: Luftforsvaret’s Centennial Year.
active member of the Coalition. For the Royal Norwegian Air Force, the aerospace component of Norway’s Joint Defence Command, the integration into the Coalition’s global response force has had major consequences.
• an increased focus on airlift (fixed wing and helicopters), and • an increased focus on expeditionary operations, including the integration of air power with mobile sea bases afloat.
The 100-year old Luftforsvaret is now composed of high-readiness rapidreaction entities, fully incorporated into the Coalition’s integrated military structure; as well as a number of units that remain strictly under national command, designated for missions more domestic in nature.
The Coalition’s role as a military first responder is facilitated by a number of high-technology capabilities, for which the burden is shared mainly by the three superpowers of the 2040s: the USA, Europe and China. Norway, primarily its aerospace component, is contributing in key niches, determined either by geographic necessity or by specific national expertise.
Highlights in operational differences between 2004 and 2044 include: • the arrival of hypersonic aerial vehicles for precision strike (operating at speeds of 4,000 knots in stead of 400 knots); • the replacement of missiles by high-energy laser weapons for engagement (air-to-air, air-to-surface, surface-to-air) and the use of eye-safe laser datalinks; • the introduction of a persistant airborne surveillance capability using aerostats and very-longendurance solar energy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); • a reduced focus on high-intensity warfighting; • an increased focus on special operations forces and interagency operations (air power supporting the security services, police, coast guard, and intelligence services); • an increased focus on disaster relief and search-and-rescue (SAR);
KEY CAPABILITIES The Coalition’s key capabilities include the following: – a global strategic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) information gathering network. This features an elaborate constellation of ground-based, sea-based, airborne and space-based sensors, connected to each other and to ground stations via widebandwidth laser for data communication, up- and downlink. Norway is contributing a secure ISR uplink/downlink ground station at Andøya and an intelligence exploitation centre at Rygge. In addition, the Royal Norwegian Air Force is operating a squadron of six very-long-endurance solar energy-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with multi-spectral sensor payloads. Able to stay airborne for one year without having to land, four of these UAVs are
