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The US Navy deployed a cell hospital to a cave system in Norway in October.
The US Navy and Marine Corps have used Norway’s caves to retailer weapons and gear for many years.
This deployment comes amid tensions with Russia which have led NATO to extend its exercise in Norway.
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The US Navy arrange a brand new facility in a cave system in northern Norway in October, reflecting the elevated focus that the US and its NATO allies have placed on the alliance’s northern borders with Russia.This month, the US Navy introduced that Naval Forces Europe and US Navy Expeditionary Medical Assist Command had delivered an Expeditionary Medical Facility to a cave system close to Bogen Bay in northern Norway, some 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle.EMFs have most of the similar capabilities as a contemporary hospital and may be deployed on brief discover, in keeping with Lt. Cmdr. Michael Lucas, director of operations for US Navy Expeditionary Medical Assist Command.Norwegian caves are “a superb storage answer” that enable for shortly stowing and deploying the EMF, and Civil Engineering Assist Gear already in them will help the EMF, Lucas stated in a press launch.
US Navy personnel stow gear for an Expeditionary Medical Facility in Bogen Bay, Norway, September 25, 2021.
US Navy
The 150-bed cell hospital can function inside Norway’s caves or be moved to reply to an emergency elsewhere in Europe.It comprises 20 intensive-care beds, 130 acute-care beds, 4 working rooms, an emergency room, and a laboratory. It might additionally conduct X-rays and CT scans, along with storing 300 items of blood.The ability brings an enhanced medical functionality to northern Europe that gives “elevated alternatives to develop shared processes and procedures with NATO allies and companions within the area,” the Navy stated within the launch.Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Skrypek, NAVEUR’s pressure medical planner, stated the venture took three years and that the transfer allowed for coaching on medical and logistical processes within the Arctic, “which improves interoperability with NATO allies and companions.”
Lt. Gen. Yngve Odlo, Norway’s Joint Headquarters commander, known as the deployment “a transparent demonstration” of US dedication to Norway and to Europe.
Gear for an Expeditionary Medical Facility stowed in Bogen Bay, Norway, September 25, 2021.
US Navy
Transferring the ability’s elements from Blount Island Command in Florida to the caves in Norway required 195 containers and 165 items of Civil Engineering Assist Gear.The transfer itself took a couple of month, however the time it takes to deploy it elsewhere in Europe will rely on the place it must go and what it is wanted to do, US Naval Forces Europe advised Insider in an e-mail.The US Navy beforehand based mostly two 500-bed fleet hospitals in Bogen Bay. These services had been deployed in the course of the Gulf Struggle and once more in the course of the invasion of Iraq, after which they had been despatched again to the US for restore. (EMFs changed fleet hospitals in 2007).
The US Marine Corps has saved gear in caves in Norway because the early Nineteen Eighties. A lot of it was withdrawn for the Iraq Struggle, however these shares had been later rebuilt and in recent times have supported workout routines round Europe.The Corps’ pressure redesign probably means some heavy gear saved in these caves can be decommissioned. The Corps additionally stated lately that it’ll cut back the rotational deployments it has performed in Norway since 2017.
The entrances to the Bjugn Cave Facility in Norway with some gear withdrawn to be taken to Estonia for an train, June 30, 1997.
US Protection Division
Different strikes point out the US can be spending extra time in Norway, nevertheless.The US Navy and Air Drive presence there has elevated in current months, together with port calls and a historic deployment by B-1B bombers earlier this 12 months. US Navy commanders have additionally educated to sail in fjords throughout exchanges with Norway’s navy.
A deal signed this spring will enable the US to construct services on Norwegian bases, together with at Evenes air station and Ramsund naval station, each of that are close to Bogen Bay.The exercise comes amid heightened rigidity with Russia. Russia’s navy exercise within the Arctic has involved Norway and its NATO allies, which have stepped up their very own exercise in that more and more accessible area.A Russian invasion of northern Norway is seen as unlikely, however the EMF deployment is a part of the response to what US officers name strategic competitors within the area and world wide.”On this period of great-power competitors, distributing our capabilities across the globe drives down threat,” Rear Adm. Michael Curran, director of readiness and logistics for US Naval Forces Europe, stated within the launch.
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