Originally posted by tbm3fan
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- The German Navy has begun training naval gunfire support again last year.
- They use part of the Andoya Missile Range on some islands pretty far north up in Norway - see below. A few months ago a contract was formed to use the range long-term by the German Navy.
- Exercises are sorta hidden under a MFE (Missile Firing Exercise) moniker - as in the NGS exercises are run as part of such.
- MFE21, from which ships returned last week, saw artillery spotters of the 413th Jäger Battalion (Army) and the Sea Battalion (Navy) directing 150 rounds of 76mm fired by a frigate (and 100 rounds of 27mm fired by a support ship) onto shore targets, with battle damage assessment performed by a German P-3C. The frigate previously in the missile part of the exercise destroyed 15 air and 2 sea target drones using SM-2, ESSM, RAM and Harpoon. Originally a corvette was also supposed to contribute to both parts of the exercise, but a Covid case prevented that.
- a long-time sounding rocket range used by European and American space agencies since the 60s.
- a military range used for missile tests by virtually all of NATO.
- homebase of 333 Sq of the Norwegian Air Force with P-3C (slated to be moved from the islands to a nearby base on the coast though)
- (since 2018) a spaceport, with planned satellite launches by two German private companies, one of which just leased a launch pad there for the next 20 years.
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