Royal Norwegian Air Force
air warfare branch of Norway's armed forces
The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) (Norwegian: Luftforsvaret, lit. 'The Air Defence') is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian Armed Forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peacetime establishment is approximately 2,430 employees (officers, enlisted staff and civilians). 600 personnel also serve their draft period in the RNoAF. After mobilization, the RNoAF would consist of approximately 5,500 personnel.
The infrastructure of the RNoAF includes seven airbases (at Ørland, Rygge, Andøya, Evenes, Bardufoss, Bodø, and Gardermoen). It also has one control and reporting centre (in Sørreisa Municipality) and three training centres: Værnes in Stjørdal Municipality (about 33 km or 18 nmi northeast of Trondheim), Kjevik in Kristiansand Municipality, and at KNM Harald Haarfagre/Madlaleiren in Stavanger Municipality.
History
Conception
Military flights started on 1 June 1912. The first plane, HNoMS Start, was bought with money donated by the public and piloted by Hans Dons, second in command of Norway's first submarine HNoMS Kobben (A-1). Until 1940 most of the aircraft belonging to the Navy and Army air forces were domestic designs or built under license agreements, the main bomber/scout aircraft of the Army air force being the Dutch-originated Fokker C.V.
World War II
Build-up for World War II
Before 1944, the Air Force were divided into the Norwegian Army Air Service (Hærens Flyvevaaben) and the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service (Marinens Flyvevaaben).
In the late 1930s, as war seemed imminent, more modern aircraft were bought from abroad, including twelve Gloster Gladiator fighters from the UK, and six Heinkel He 115s from Germany.
The public source identifies “Royal Norwegian Air Force” as air warfare branch of Norway's armed forces. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Royal, Norwegian and Force.
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This entry incorporates text from “Royal Norwegian Air Force” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.