Home Guard (Norway)

The Norwegian Home Guard (Heimevernet), is a rapid mobilisation force in the Norwegian military. Founded 6 December 1946, it is the second youngest branch in the Norwegian forces after the Norwegian Cyber Force (Cyberforsvaret). It has land, sea and air defense units, and has volunteers and conscript personnel with backgrounds from all branches. Its main focus is local defense and civil support, but it can also detach volunteers for international operations.

Organization
It is divided into districts, which again is divided into smaller units, typically covering a single Municipality. In a wartime situation Heimevernet will typically be used to protect the local infrastructure and population, but may also be used as regular troops. As it for the most part comprises locals, it is ideally suited for guerrilla warfare, sabotage, ambushes.

Recently (2005), the Home Guard has recruited for a high readiness force with better trained and equipped personnel. It is called the "Task Force" (Norwegian: Innsatsstyrke) This force represents 10 percent of the total force.

Strength
The Home Guard has a peace time personnel number of 1,200. On high readiness there are 5,000 Task Force personnel, 25,000 "Strengthening Force" personnel and 20,000 "Follow-up Force" personnel. The total Home Guard Force is approximately 56,200.

Troop Exchange
The Home Guard does a troop exchange with the Minnesota National Guard every year. The exchange grew from Norwegian American soldiers sent to Norway to assist resistance fighters in World War II. As part of the Exchange, American Guard members are flown to Camp Torpomoen and Norwegians are sent to Camp Ripley. Troops complete each other's winter operations training, and tour the area.



The Task Forces
There is one Task Force per district, in total 5000 men. The Task Force is the speartip of the Norwegian Home Guard, and contains flexible and mobile units. It has top priority when concerning weapons, material and training resources. The Force is ready to respond within 24 hours to acts of terrorism, bomb threats, and or other emergencies.

The Task Force consists of several different units within each district. In this way, each district will be able to respond to any kind of incident that could occur, without having to rely on outside help. Each district (with some variations) will have trained operators in these different types of units:


 * Jegertropp (Reconnaissance units)
 * Skarpskyttertropp (Sharpshooter teams)
 * MP-tjeneste (Military Police service)
 * Hundetjenesten (K9 unit)
 * ABC-tropp (NBC platoon)
 * Stabstropp (Staff platoon - Communications, intelligence, transport & logistics)
 * Dykkerlag (Diving team - Underwater reconnaissance, explosives-detection)
 * Sanitetstropp (Medical unit)
 * Sambandstropp (Communications unit)
 * Innsatstropp (Force protection platoons)
 * Kystmeldepost (Coastal observation posts)
 * Bordingslag (Boarding team - Observation, control, inspection and takeover of ships/boats)

Home Guard Districts
Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 Region 4
 * Oslofjord Heimevernsdistrikt 01 - HV-01 - Rygge
 * Oslo og Akershus Heimevernsdistrikt 02 - HV-02 - Lutvann
 * Telemark og Buskerud Heimevernsdistrikt 03 - HV-03 - Heistadmoen
 * Opplandske Heimevernsdistrikt 05 - HV-05 - Terningmoen
 * Rogaland Heimevernsdistrikt 08 - HV-08 - Vatneleiren
 * Bergenhus Heimevernsdistrikt 09 - HV-09 - Bergenhus
 * Møre og Romsdal Heimevernsdistrikt 11 - HV-11 - Setnesmoen
 * Trøndelag Heimevernsdistrikt 12 - HV-12 - Værnes
 * Sør-Hålogaland Heimevernsdistrikt 14 - HV-14 - Drevjamoen
 * Nord-Hålogaland Heimevernsdistrikt 16 - HV-16 - Elvegårdsmoen
 * Finnmark Heimevernsdistrikt 17 - HV-17 - Porsangermoen