The Norwegian government wants to support the industry during this difficult period and will accelerate defense investments for more than NOK 1 billion.
The Norwegian government wants to support the industry during this difficult period and will accelerate defense investments for more than NOK 1 billion.
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Corvette KNM Skjold (Illustration source: Norwegian MoD / Torgeir Haugaard)
“By accelerating the upgrade of coastal corvettes to the Navy and tanks to the Army, we can both build defense capabilities and support the Norwegian industry”, says Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen. "These are measures that help companies get back on track and get people back to work while also getting a faster strengthening of the Defense," the Minister of Defense said.
In addition, there are proposals in the government's proposal for a new long-term plan for the defense sector to investigate new vessel structures for the naval defense. This also provides increased opportunities for the Norwegian maritime knowledge cluster.
NOK 500 million for the corvettes of the Norwegian Navy
The government will speed up the upgrade of the Navy's Shield-class coastal corvettes and will spend more than NOK 500 million on this. The upgrade will take place in the period 2020-2024 and will be able to give new assignments to both the shipbuilding yard and to other national subsystem suppliers. The work will include upgrading components and several of the systems onboard. The new long-term plan for the Armed Forces recommends a continuation of the vessels by 2030. This is one of several measures to partially compensate for the loss of KNM Helge Ingstad. The Skjold class is built by Umoe Mandal and is among the fastest marine vessels in the world.
Research and development
The government will increase the allocation for defense-related research and development work by NOK 20 million in 2020. This means an increase from NOK 71 to 91 million. This will help to secure employment and expertise within a demanding area of the Norwegian industry and business. It will also position the Norwegian industry and business towards future acquisitions, both nationally and internationally. In addition, the strengthening will enable faster development of future planned projects.
