The news website Independent Barents Observer, for its part, said that the ranger company is due to reinforce the Border Guard troops based at Sor-Varanger Garrison outside Kirkenes on the Norwegian-Russian border, in line with a long-term plan announced by Norway's Defense Minister Ine Soreide Eriksen.
"The plan suggests allocating 16.2 billion euros to the Armed Forces over the next 20 years. This is 2.7 billion euros less than the Chief of Defense proposed in a report he presented last autumn. More than 1,500 jobs will be eliminated: some 1,100 military staff and 450 civilians," the Independent Barents Observer said.
Norway has been regularly involved in military drills near Russia's borders, including Cold Response, Joint Viking, Dynamic Mongoose and others.
Last year, the Norwegian daily Dagsavisen criticized the Norwegian Armed Forces, accusing it of inventing Russophobia and using it to justify its increasing military spending to counter an imaginary Russian threat.
driving along winter road #Kirkenes #Norway near #Russian border #FriFotos #LeadingLines pic.twitter.com/tA1H5UbJ4G
— Christine Pappin MCC (@ChrisPappinMCC) 8 апреля 2016 г.
The newspaper said at the time that Norway doesn't need any more weapons, because Russia is not a threat to Norway.
The vessel will be one of the two ships which Norway and NATO plan to send to the Arctic Ocean in an attempt to find lurking Russian submarines, which have been terrifying the imagination of Scandinavians for the last couple of years.
Amid NATO's eastward expansion, Norway, as a loyal member of the Western military alliance, is preoccupied with its mission to make sure that it leaves no stone unturned on the bottom of the Norwegian and Barents Seas, in search of imaginary Russian submarines.
