Languages

Norwegian frigate to take part in May 9th celebrations

Frigates Fridtjof Nansen and Helge Ingstad

The Norwegian frigate Helge Ingstad will take part in the Victory Day celebrations in the Northern Fleet’s main base Severomorsk.

Location

The frigate will afterwards take part in the joint Russian naval exercise POMOR-2011, which starts from Severomorsk and ends in Tromsø in Northern Norway ten days later.

Read also: Joint Arctic naval exercise

The vessel’s personnel will join Russian military personnel in the big Victory parade through the center of Severomorsk, Central Navy Portal reports, citing the Northern Fleet’s spokesperson Vadim Serga.

Helge Ingstad was delivered to the Norwegian navy in 2009 and is the fourth of a total of five frigates of the Fridtjof Nansen classto be built. The frigate project is Norway’s largest defense investment project ever. All the new frigates are named after famous Norwegian explorers: Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen, Otto Sverdrup, Helge Ingstad and Thor Heyerdahl.

Preparations for the May 9th celebrations are also going as planned in Murmansk. Last year’s parade was a giant demonstration of military power and modern equipment. This year the celebrations seem to be more moderated, with only personnel and no vehicles. Soldiers and officers from the 200 motorized infantry brigade, the air carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, the naval infantry, the naval air force and submarine forces will take part in the parade together with other paramilitary and police forces.

A total of 700 military servicemen will take part in the parade in Murmansk, and some 530 in Severomorsk.

See slide show from the 2010 Victory Day celebrations in Murmansk