Country Norway Size 45,000 | Allegiance Norway Motto(s) VERNER VOKTER VIRKER | |
Founded December 6, 1946; 70 years ago (1946-12-06) Current
commander Major General Tor Rune Raabye | ||
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.
Contents
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 45000.
Troop exchange
The Home Guard does a troop exchange with the Minnesota National Guard every year. 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.
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 (a.k.a. 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