Icelandic Coast Guard
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Origins of the Icelandic Coast Guard (Landhelgisgæsla Íslands or Landhelgisgæslan) can be traced to 1859, when the corvette Ørnen started patrolling Icelandic waters. And in 1906 the first purposely built guard-ship Islands Falk came to Iceland. Iceland's own defense of its territorial waters began around 1920 and the Icelandic Coast Guard was formally founded on July 1, 1926. The first cannon was put on the trawler Þór in 1924 and on June 23, 1926 the first ship built for the Coast Guard, named Óðinn, arrived in Iceland. Three years later, on the 14 July 1929 the coastal defence ship Ægir was added to the Coast Guard fleet.
The Icelandic Coast Guard played its largest role during the Cod Wars between 1972 and 1975, when the Coast Guard ships would cut the trawl wires of British and West German trawlers, while being rammed by the Royal Navy, in order to protect sealife from overfishing. Eventually, the British government agreed to recognize the expanded Fisheries zone, after the Icelandic government threatened evict the US forces (known as the Iceland defence force) from Keflavík Naval base and quit NATO.
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[edit] Operations
The Icelandic Coast Guard's primary mission is the defending the sovereignty of Icelandic territorial waters, as well as keeping Icelandic law in the 200nm wide Economic zone. Other important missions are such as Search and Rescue of both seamen and others, as well as defusing mines, most of which were laid during the Second World War, and monitoring vessels in International waters outside of the Icelandic Economic zone in order to blacklist any vessel partaking in unregulated fishing (known as sjóræningjaveiðar (pirate fishing)) and thus bar them from receiving services from any member of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission [1] to make unregulated fishing unprofitable.
Recently the Coast Guard has started hosting exercises such as "Northern Challenge" which had military units from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom participating along with the Icelandic Coast Guard. The Coast Guard also takes part in Peacekeeping Operations on behalf of the Icelandic Crisis Response Unit, although while using their own rank insignia, uniforms and weapons.
[edit] Mottos
,,Við erum til taks.‘‘ "We are ready."
,,Föðurland vort hálft er hafið.‘‘ "Half our Fatherland is the ocean."
[edit] The Fleet
Currently the Icelandic Coast Guard fleet consists of three ships and one boat. V/s Týr is the youngest and current flagship, built by Århus Flydedok a/s and launched in 1975. V/s Ægir is V/s Týr's sister-ship, built by Ålborg Værft a/s and launched in 1968. The oldest ship is V/s Óðinn, also built by Ålborg Værft a/s launched in 1960. V/s Óðinn is soon to be retired and replaced with a new ship. Each ship is equipped with two inflatable boats of various sizes and armed with a 40 mm Bofors L60 MK 3 cannon. Various kinds of small-arms as well as other man portable weapons are also carried onboard each of the ships. The coast guard has a 64 ton hydrographic boat as well, named M/s Baldur, it was built by Vélsmiðja Seyðisfjarðar in 1991.
[edit] The Aeronautical Division
The Icelandic Coast Guard operates only two helicopters. One Aerospatiale AS-332L1 Super Puma, registered as TF-LIF and an Aerospatiale SA-365N Dauphin II, registered as TF-SIF. By September 2006 two more helicopter will be added as a response to the withdrawal of the Iceland Defense Force increasing the numbers of helicopters from two to four. The Coast Guard also operates a single Fokker F-27-200 Friendship, registered as TF-SYN, modified for maritime surveillance and reconnaissance. It is planned to replace Friendship TF-SYN, as it is rapidly becoming obsolete because of its age (operated since 1977).
Unlike the fleet, aircraft of the Icelandic Coast Guard have standard Icelandic civilian registers, as the Alþingi (parliament) has never agreed on laws for military or government aircraft. Nevertheless, the helicopters are outfitted with latest generation U.S. night vision equipment, reserved for U.S. armed forces and the armies of their allies. And thus the only civilian registered aircraft in the world, so equipped.
[edit] Names
All major vehicles of the Icelandic Coast Guard are named after beings from norse mythology.
- V/s Týr is named after Týr, the god of combat and heroism.
- V/s Ægir is named after Ægir, the king of the sea.
- V/s Óðinn is named after Óðinn the allseeing father of the gods.
- TF-SYN is named after Syn, goddess of watchfullness and truth.
- TF-LIF is named after Líf, the only woman who will survive Ragnarök.
- TF-SIF is named after Sif, goddess and wife of Þór, the god of thunder and trollslaying.
- M/s Baldur is named after Baldur, god of beauty and more.
[edit] Future prospects
Currently, bidding for a contract to build a new, 90 meter long, vessel for the Coast Guard is underway, as a replacement for V/s Óðinn which is going to become a museum piece. The new ship is supposed to be similar to the Norwegian Harstad class offshore patrol vessels, although old Coast Guard heroes such as Höskuldur Skarphéðinsson, who was captain of V/s Baldur during the last Cod War, have called for more powerful vessels similar to the Danish Thetis class ships. Incidentally the design for a new Coast Guard vessel from 1997 was armed with an Otobreda 76 mm gun like the Danish ships, while Harstad class ships are armed with the same 40 mm Bofors gun that is already in use with the Icelandic Coast Guard. It remains to be seen which one will be chosen for the new ship. On December 1 2006 the government approved the construction of this new ship which will be done by the Asmar shipbuilding company in Chile. The design for the ship was done by Rolls Royce in Norway and it will weight 4000 tons and thus considerably bigger than the Norwegian Harstad class, it will also be slightly faster. No information is available yet as for its armament. Although it has not been confirmed, it is believed likely that it will bear the name V/s Þór.[[2]]
The Coast Guard is also searching for a new aircraft in cooperation with the Swedish Försvarets Materialverk, in order to replace the aging TF-SYN.
In an announcement on 24 March 2006, the Minister of justice and ecclesiastical affairs, Björn Bjarnason affirmed that, as a result of the withdrawal of the Iceland Defense Force, more helicopters will be rented for the Coast Guard, before September 2006, and that new ones will be bought later. Both France and Russia have declared their interest in selling helicopters and other defence materials.
On 23 May 2006, in an announcement, the Ministry of justice and ecclesiastical affairs declared their decision to rent two helicopters of the same type already operated by the Coast Guard. As the supply of Aerospatiale AS-332L1 Super Puma helicopters for renting is very limited it was decided to rent a single Aerospatiale SA-365N Dauphin II along with the Super Puma, increasing the size of the Coast Guard helicopter fleet by 100%. These helicopters will be rented for one year with an option to lengthen the renting period by six to twelve months. Since this is only to be a temporary measure, plans for future composition of the helicopter fleet were released in June 2006. [[3]] The helicopers reported to be under consideration are the Eurocopter EC225, NH Industries NH90, Sikorsky S-92 and AgustaWestland EH101. Although buying the NH 90 helicopters would require the Coast Guard helicopters to be reclassified as military helicopters.
![[2]](http://www.domsmalaraduneyti.is/media/vardskip/vardskip_skrokkur.jpg){kind=link}