Earlier in December, the governments of Britain and Norway announced that they had signed a bilateral security deal which would allow for joint operations to monitor regional Russian submarine activity, as well as oversee the construction of as many as thirteen Type-26 anti-submarine frigates, five for Norway and potentially eight for the United Kingdom.
These vessels would patrol the waters between the two countries, including the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK) Gap, which is seen as an area increasingly vulnerable to Russian maritime incursions.
In addition to the warships, there would also be UK-Norwegian cooperation in the development of support vessels for mine-hunting and underwater surveillance, missile systems and torpedoes, as well as combined war game operations and opportunities for British forces to receive winter-temperature military training in Norway. The Lunna House Agreement was agreed to by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and his British counterpart, Keir Starmer, in recognition of the two countries’ concerns about expanded Russian maritime activity and espionage in Northern European waters.
This Agreement is the latest example of NATO states seeking to improve their defensive capabilities in the Arctic, as the far north and its adjacent waters become more militarised and contested.
Marc Lanteigne, Chief Editor for Over the Circle, commented [video] on the deal for TVP (Poland) last week.
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