Heimevernet mot 2030: Framtidig rolle og oppgaver

Recent long term plans for the Norwegian Armed Forces have only considered the Home Guard to a limited extent. Stortinget has therefore requested a study into the needs for competence, training and equipment. This report investigates the future role and tasks for the Home Guard, and is a first contribution to answering the questions posed by Stortinget. We consider two research questions: 1. What are the most important threats faced by Norway, where the Home Guard is a possible contributor? 2. What role and tasks can the Home Guard have in the future? To answer these questions, we review literature and history, and we conduct 36 qualitative interviews with informants from within and outside the Armed Forces. We conclude: 1. An attack on Norway with primarily regular, military weapons is the most dangerous challenge to the country. However, we believe an attack utilizing primarily irregular weapons, such as cyber operations and terrorism, is the most difficult to detect and to defend against. Improve- ments in situational awareness, coordination, and in the ability to resist attacks over time are important in order to reduce the probability of being subjected to irregular weapons, and to withstand them. To tackle crises of all sorts from peace to war, we require a military reserve force. 2. The Home Guard should be a military organization, as it is today, but to a larger extent directed towards grey zones between peace and war. The Home Guard should be a general reserve capacity, able to give relevant support to the Armed Forces, to the police and to other civilian emergency capacities. The Home Guard should be a general, decentralized reserve-based military capacity, located mainly where people live, able to handle unforeseen events. Guiding principles should be flexible support, civilian-military interaction and local affiliation. 4