Olavsvern is a decommissioned

Royal Norwegian Navy The Royal Norwegian Navy ( no, Sjøforsvaret, , Sea defence) is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for naval operations of Norway. , the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel (9,450 in mobilized state, 3 ...

base located just outside the city of

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Tromsø (city), city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies ...

. It is located along the

European route E8 The European route E8 is a European route that goes from Tromsø, Norway to Turku, Finland. The length of the route is . * E8: Tromsø – Nordkjosbotn – Skibotn – Kilpisjärvi – Kaaresuvanto – Muonio – Tornio – Keminmaa – Kemi ...

at the entrance to the Ramfjorden from the

Balsfjorden or is a fjord in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The long fjord runs through the municipalities of Balsfjord and Tromsø. It branches off the Tromsøysundet strait just south of the city of Tromsø and it flows in a north–south direction, ...

History

During the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, Norway wanted a secret naval base within the

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. The base was essentially carved into a mountain just outside the city of

. It is a massive complex constructed at a cost of 4 billion Kroner burrowed into a mountain. It lost its status as an ''Orlogsstasjon'' (navy base) in 2002 and was consequently closed down in 2009 by the government of

Jens Stoltenberg Jens Stoltenberg (born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Norwegian Labour Party, he previously served as the 34th prime minister of Norway from 2000 to ...

.Russian ships in old Arctic NATO base set alarms bells ringing – Yahoo News
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Infrastructure

The base has an inside surface of beneath of hard rock, including of housing, and of deep-water dock. In one of the mountain halls, there is a

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

for submarines. The internal dry dock is capable of accommodating 6 submarines simultaneously. The base further consists of a dry dock, workshops, offices and ammunition depots. The base also has external docks capable of accommodating larger ships, among other

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

SSN's and

SSBN A ballistic missile submarine is a submarine capable of deploying submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) with nuclear warheads. The United States Navy's hull classification symbols for ballistic missile submarines are SSB and SSBN – ...

's. The entrance to the facilities consist of a tunnel that is more than long.

Accidents

In 2005, an accident in a

scuba Scuba may refer to: * Scuba diving ** Scuba set, the equipment used for scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving * Scuba, an in-memory database developed by Facebook * Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, either of two in ...

exercise inside the base led to the death of SBS commander Lieutenant Colonel Richard van der Horst. The accident involved a swimmer delivery vehicle during an amphibious exercise. In March 2022,

James May James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963) is an English television presenter and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter of the motoring programme ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond from ...

suffered a broken rib when he crashed a Mitsubishi Evo in one of the tunnels during a competition between the show's presenters to see who could drive (and stop) the fastest while filming for a special episode of

The Grand Tour ''The Grand Tour'' is a British motoring television series, created by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and Andy Wilman, made for Amazon exclusively for its online streaming service Amazon Prime Video, and premiered on 18 Novembe ...

, and was taken to the hospital.

Decommissioning

The base was closed down in 2009 and put up for sale by the Norwegian government for 105 million Norwegian kroner (17.5 million USD) in 2011 and later sold for 38 million Kroner to Olavsvern Group Ltd, a company that announced its purpose to use the base as a maintenance base for oil platform rigs and drilling equipment.

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

approved the sale.

Post-decommissioning

The base was rented by companies from Russia linked to state-owned Gazprom . Suspected Russian military activity aboard research vessels has concerned military experts, with Norwegian retired vice admiral Jan Reksten, former military second in command stating, ""Russia is a country where the state has a say over all commercial or semi-state business. It's clear, very few people know what happens on these vessels," stating the sale of Olavsvern was "a double loss" as "Norway's armed forces lost an important base and now there are Russian vessels docked there."

Buyback

In 2019, a subsidiary of the Wilhelmsen Group called WilNor Governmental Services Ltd acquired 66% of the stock in Olavsvern Group Ltd, thus assuring majority control of the former base. The acquisition by WilNor Governmental Services was by request from the Norwegian Defence Logistics Organization (FLO). The acquisition allows the Norwegian Defence Forces and its allies to resume operations at the base, as the Wilhelmsen Group has a long history of supplying and cooperating with the Norwegian Defence Forces. In 2015, WGS entered into a long-term contract to supply strategic logistics support for Norwegian and allied forces, among others the storage of ammunition. The contract also provides for several supply bases along the Norwegian coast, in order to ensure the Royal Norwegian Navy capability to maintain Norwegian sovereignty and defend the country against external threats. In 2020, there was talk of Olavsvern being used as a base for United States nuclear submarines. As of March 2021 the base has started to host allied military units, such as the

Dutch Marine Corps The Netherlands Marine Corps ( nl, Korps Mariniers) is the elite naval infantry corps of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The marines trace their origins back to the establishment of the on 10 December 1665, by the then grand pensionary of the Du ...

References

{{Royal Norwegian Navy Tromsø Royal Norwegian Navy bases Military installations in Troms og Finnmark