The Artillery Battalion ( no, Artilleribataljonen) is the

Norwegian army The Norwegian Army ( no, Hæren) is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway ...

Brigade Nord Brigade Nord (Brig. N.; Northern Brigade) is the major combat formation and only brigade of the Norwegian Army. The Brigade will raise 1 new Armoured Battalion in 2026-32. 2nd Battalion are converting to Armoured Battalion from 2020. It is mostly b ...

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

battalion. The unit numbers some 550 soldiers and officers. The battalion's main weapons are

K9 Thunder The K9 Thunder is a South Korean 155 mm self-propelled howitzer designed and developed by the Agency for Defense Development and civil contractors including Dongmyeong Heavy Industries, Kia Heavy Industry, Poongsan Corporation, and Samsung Aer ...

self-propelled howitzer Self-propelled artillery (also called locomotive artillery) is artillery equipped with its own propulsion system to move toward its firing position. Within the terminology are the self-propelled gun, self-propelled howitzer, self-propelled m ...

s and

NASAMS NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, also known as the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) is a distributed and networked short- to medium-range ground-based air defense system developed by Kongsberg Defence & Ae ...

III air-defence system.

Organization

The battalion consists of five batteries and the battalion HQ: * Cannon batteries: Nils, Olga and Petter * Staff Battery * Locating Battery * SHORAD Battery Batteries N, O and P are the gun batteries. Nils and Olga are situated at

Setermoen Setermoen is the administrative centre of Bardu Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The village is located along the Barduelva river, about east of the village of Sjøvegan and about south of Bardufoss. The local council procl ...

Camp, while Piraja is situated at Rena. The two 'old timer' batteries, Nils and Olga, each have a gun platoon (manning the howitzers), an OP platoon (Observation Post platoon, moving with the unit being supported and acquiring targets) and a command platoon (collects and processes data, issues firing data). The fresh battery Petter only has a gun platoon and a command platoon, but is being set up with an OP platoon. In addition, Nils and Olga has contributions to the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Meymaneh,

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. HQ battery consists of support and supply personnel. They provide the gun batteries with the resources they need to fight ( ammunition,

distance Distance is a numerical or occasionally qualitative measurement of how far apart objects or points are. In physics or everyday usage, distance may refer to a physical length or an estimation based on other criteria (e.g. "two counties over"). ...

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

and weather data and security). In addition, they garrison Setermoen camp and serves as guards and medics during exercises. The STA (Surveillance and Target Acquisition) Battery comprises two artillery ranger (''Artillerijeger'') platoons, who moves in forward positions and conducts JTAC missions. The battalion also has a WLS-platoon (radar), that is used in

counter-battery fire Counter-battery fire (sometimes called counter-fire) is a battlefield tactic employed to defeat the enemy's indirect fire elements (multiple rocket launchers, artillery and mortars), including their target acquisition, as well as their command ...

. When enemy artillery fires, the WLS radar detects the projectile and uses its trajectory to calculate where it was fired from. This data is then sent to the ILS and the cannon battery staffs, which in turn use this to coordinate the cannons in an effort to take out the enemy battery.

The Batteries

Battery Nils

Based at Setermoen, Nils Battery is the oldest battery still in service with the Norwegian Army. It can trace its footsteps back to pre-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

times. During the late 1990s it was the only gun battery in operation, until the MLRS system was introduced, though at that time it was a great deal bigger than its current size. Since Nils Battery's mascot is a bear, it is called the Army's Slagbjørn ("Slagbjørn" being the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

designation of a bear that has attacked people or

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

and should thus be considered a danger). After supporting the 2. Bataljon for a few years, Nils battery is now supporting the Norwegian Panserbatalion.

Battery Olga

Olga Battery was created in 1947, as a part of the artillery regiment which served under

Tysklandsbrigaden The Independent Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany ( no, Tysklandsbrigaden, 'the Germany Brigade') was a Norwegian expeditionary force stationed in the British zone of Allied-occupied Germany, from 1946 to 1953. At first it was based in the Hanove ...

, Norway's force participation in the post-war

occupation of Germany Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Franc ...

. After the occupation it was relocated to Setermoen. It continued to serve until the 1990s, when many units in the

Norwegian Armed Forces The Norwegian Armed Forces ( no, Forsvaret, , The Defence) is the military organization responsible for the defence of Norway. It consists of five branches, the Norwegian Army, the Royal Norwegian Navy, which includes the Coast Guard, the Royal ...

were disbanded after the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

in 1991 and the end of the threat of full-scale

invasion An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity aggressively enter territory (country subdivision), territory owned by another such entity, gen ...

. The battery was reformed on June 21, 2006, and assigned to the

Panserbataljonen The Armoured Battalion ( no, Panserbataljonen) is the first battalion and an infantry unit of the Norwegian Army. Although it is categorised as an armoured unit, the battalion (strictly a battlegroup) primarily serves in the mechanised infantry ...

at Setermoen. After a few years however, the roles were changed and battery Olga is now supporting 2. Bataljon. Its howitzers are named after stars of the

Ursa Major Ursa Major (; also known as the Great Bear) is a constellation in the northern sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means "greater (or larger) bear," referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa ...

constellation. During its stay in Germany, the battery adopted a

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...

piglet that had lost its parents to

poachers Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

. The boar was named Corporal Oscar and became the battery's mascot. Because of its "rank", all privates had to salute it. As it grew up it became uncontrollable and dangerous and had to be put down. When the battery was reformed in 2006, the battery commander, captain Tom Patrick Scarlett, was given a new wild boar piglet as a ceremonial gift. The new piglet was named Corporal Oscar II, inheriting the rank of its predecessor and also enjoying the mandatory salutes of soldiers serving in Olga battery. He is a familiar sight walking mostly free around in Setermoen camp.

Battery Petter

Battery Petter was re-established in 2006 (it also existed in the 70s, 80s and 90s) and is assigned to Telemarkbataljonen at Rena as part of the new

Rapid Reaction Force A rapid reaction force is a military or police unit designed to respond in very short time frames to emergencies. When used in reference to police forces such as SWAT teams, the time frame is minutes, while in military applications, such as with t ...

of the

Norwegian Army The Norwegian Army ( no, Hæren) is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway ...

. It is also the only gun battery in the battalion to field exclusively professional soldiers.

References

External links

The battalion's official page on the Norwegian Armed Forces homepage
{{Norwegian Army Battalions of Norway Artillery units and formations