Norway will also seek to bring its new fleet of U.S.-made P-8 Poseidon submarine-hunting maritime patrol aircraft into regular operation at a faster pace than originally planned, the chief of defence, General Eirik Kristoffersen, said.
The scale of alert on which the military operates is classified, however, and the government declined to give details of the level.
There were no concrete threats against Norway now triggering the decision, Kristoffersen told Reuters, but rather the sum of “the uncertainties” was leading authorities to raise the country’s military preparedness.
“We have seen an escalation (in the war) in Ukraine, we (Norway) are training Ukrainian forces, the Ukraine war has changed with the Russian mobilisation,” he said an interview.
“And at the same time, we have had a gas explosion in the Baltic Sea and drone activity at North Sea platforms.”
The raised level is expected to last a year, “possibly more”, Kristoffersen added.
Norway is now the biggest exporter of natural gas to the European Union, accounting for around a quarter of all EU imports after a drop in Russian flows.
“This is the most severe security situation in several decades,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told a news conference.
The armed forces will spend less time training and more time on operational duties and the Home Guard, a rapid mobilisation force, will play a more active role, Defence Minister Bjoern Arild Gram said.
The air force had called off training in the United States with its F35 fighter jets, preferring to keep them in Norway, said Kristoffersen.
Norway first deployed its military to guard offshore platforms and onshore facilities after leaks on the Nord Stream pipeline on September 26 and has received support from the British, French and German navies.
