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NOT FOUND: The Armed Forces can advance faster and many are willing to work in the Armed Forces, according to Chief of Defense General Eirik Kristoffersen. Photo: Jil Yngland, NTB
The Armed Forces need more employees and staffing must be done quickly. A united opposition, from Frp to SV, backs the lawsuit. So does the new Chief of Defense, General Eirik Kristoffersen.
– I think the Armed Forces are capable of acting faster than they are supposed to, Kristoffersen tells VG.
– But it’s in the finances. We have many people willing to work in the Armed Forces. We get an average of 10 candidates for every position we advertise. But within the financial framework, there is no room for increased staffing, he adds.
In the Solberg administration’s new version of the long-term plan for the Armed Forces, which was sent to the Storting on Friday, there are 550 new man-years in the first four years, plus 700 recruits.
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Deeply disagree
A larger increase has been included in the plan between 2025 and 2029, when the Armed Forces aim to have 2,200 more employees and 3,300 more recruits than today.
But here Defense Chief Eirik Kristoffersen and Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen (H) deeply disagree:
– I have no problem saying that we would like to increase our staff further. But that presupposes that we can offer them education and that we have the money to equip them, he said. Bakke-Jensen to VG early Friday.
But there is no question who the opposition of the two is listening to:
– The Armed Forces are in great need of more people now, Anniken Huitfeldt (Labor Party), chairman of the Storting Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, tells VG.
– The new plan is more concrete, but it also shows the weaknesses. In the state budget for 2021, there are only 57 new man-years. The Armed Forces now have an unused opportunity to bring back former employees who have trained in the Armed Forces, pilots, mechanics and sailors who disappeared because salaries could have been better in the civil sector, he adds.
Morten Wold, Defense Policy Spokesperson for FRP, is fully online:
– There is very little increase by staff. That worries me, he tells VG.
But at the same time, the FRP is open to negotiate the largest possible majority for the plan:
– We have to do a few rounds before reaching an agreement. There should be a broad consensus in the Storting behind the Norwegian defense. I hope that we can have good negotiations and that we can reach an agreement in the end, says Wold.
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Clandestine
SV leader Audun Lysbakken says in a written statement that “the Armed Forces need more people, and the most important weakness of the government’s proposal remains the lack of a plan to guarantee an increase in personnel in the Armed Forces.” . Without more people, the new investments will be worthless. “
Sp believes that the government through the long-term plan degrades the Armed Forces.
The party’s defense policy spokeswoman, Liv Signe Navarsete, points to a lack of annual coverage of 1 billion crowns, compared to what the defense chief thought was a minimal commitment.
More staff also ranks high on the wish list of organizations that organize Armed Forces officers:
– We risk a weakened defense compared to the decision of the Storting in 2016, writes Torbjørn Bongo, head of the Norwegian Officials Association, in an SMS to VG.
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Pay for old investments
In May, the four main opposition parties formed a majority to send the government the long-term plan of the Armed Forces with a series of points that they would have specified.
However, the plan, which is now back in the Storting, has the same financial framework: NOK 16.5 billion more for defense over the next eight years.
– We have not put more money at the starting point. We think the plan was a really good plan. Now we spend a lot of money to pay for investments that were decided before, while the bills are coming in now. We still pay for the fighter jets we ordered more than 10 years ago, and we are starting to pay for many submarines that will arrive in a few years, Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) tells VG.
Remember that the long-term plan will have a real increase of an average of two billion crowns per year for the next eight years.
– And then we started with an increase of three billion crowns this year, adds Solberg.
PS: Chief of Defense Eirik Kristoffersen also notes that he would like to see strengthened air defense against missile attacks on the large air bases that are being built in Ørland and Evenes.
– We face new threats. Russia is modernizing and developing its missile capabilities very rapidly. I’d like long-range air defense to come earlier, but within the plan I don’t see any possibility of that now, says Kristoffersen.
