"If there is something that can be done with a P-3, we have probably done it," says Col. Christian Schønfeldt, Commander of 133 Air Wing, the Royal Norwegian Air Force Maritime Patrol unit at Andøya Air Station. "we count everything from seals and whales to sea-launched ballistic missiles."
It is rare that the six Norwegian Orions — four P-3Cs and two uniquely configured P-3Ns — are all at the base at the same time. "In late 2007, we had only three aircraft on station," notes Lt. Col. Håvard Berg-Olsen, commander of 333 Squadron, the P-3 flying unit at Andøya (An-dough-yah). "Two of the Charlies [P-3Cs] were in depot maintenance, and one P-3N was being modified. We flew long missions with what we had. We had one aircraft landing and one taking off most days."
But busy days are nothing new for 333 Squadron crews. They have been active constantly since the unit, which dates back to World War II, moved to Andøya in 1962. The reason? As any realtor will tell you: location, location, location.
Andøya AS is located at the northern tip of Andøya Island at the far western edge of Norway, 170 miles above the Arctic Circle. While isolated, the base is only seventy-five minutes flying time from Murmansk, Russia’s only year-round, ice-free harbor. Much of the Russian naval fleet is based there. "For the Russians in the Barents Sea, the quickest route to Europe, the north Atlantic, and the United States, is right by the air station," says Berg-Olsen, who can look down from his office window and see land’s end.
"It is obvious we are in a strategic location," adds Schønfeldt. "The Cold War is over, but we are still interested in monitoring the Russians for a variety of reasons. We are closer than any other NATO base to their test and exercise areas, and we can monitor what they are doing on almost a daily basis."
Say Cheese
A bulletin board on the way to the squadron briefing room is filled with a series of flip charts that contain photos of the month. The photos are divided into several categories — naval vessels, commercial ships, aircraft, submarines, and other. The last category includes shots of newly spotted radar antennas on frigates and towed target barges. The briefing room itself contains large framed images, the photos of the year. All of these are deemed the biggest annual intelligence scoops dating back to the 1970s.
"Our crews take a lot of photos, and our intelligence section analyzes them for changes or new equipment. We’ve done this with the P-3 for almost forty years," says Schønfeldt. "The Russians know we are photographing them. We get our photos, and then we let them do their thing. We contribute every day to the information Norwegian leaders need, and our crews take a lot of satisfaction from that. We put emphasis on not being too much in their way. Our interactions are usually quite civil."
There was one notable exception. In 1987, a Soviet Su-27 interceptor pilot collided with a Norwegian P-3 over international waters. Incidentally, then-Lieutenant Schønfeldt was the crew’s tactical coordinator on that flight. Today the broken propeller blade from that collision resides in the 333 Squadron ready room along with the only casualty of the incident, a portable vacuum cleaner that was nearly cut in half when the prop tip penetrated the fuselage. The squadron entered the public spotlight after extreme close-up photos of the Su-27 were later released worldwide.
333 Squadron (always pronounced three-three-three) transitioned to the P-3B from anti-submarine warfare-equipped HU-16 Albatross amphibians in 1969. "The Norwegian Air Force had five P-3Bs to start," notes Berg-Olsen. "With the increase in size in the economic and military zones, the Air Force bought two more P-3Bs. We sold five of the P-3Bs to Spain in 1989 and bought four P-3Cs. During the Cold War, we flew a lot and had so much activity. Professionalism, luck, and the saints watching out for us have brought us to close to 150,000 flight hours with no major accidents."
The unit was formed in Scotland in 1942 and assigned to the Royal Air Force Coastal Command as a Royal Norwegian Air Force squadron-in-exile. Flying Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina seaplanes, 333 Squadron crews conducted clandestine missions to occupied Norway to insert radio telegraphers to report on Kriegsmarine ship traffic along the coast. As a morale boost to their countrymen, 333 Squadron crews would drop chocolate to the children in some Norwegian villages at Christmas, right under the nose of the Germans.
During the 1960s, the squadron was given the radio call sign Saint. The squadron took the nickname Saints, from the Simon Templar character in the books by Leslie Charteris that date from the 1920s. The stick figure of the Saint that appeared on the books, as well as the later movies and television shows, is today painted on the tails of the squadron’s P-3s. The Saints are the only Royal Norwegian Air Force squadron to be in continuous service since World War II.
More Than Submarines
Few units are so intertwined with their chief adversary as 333 Squadron, which has the image of a Russian submarine on its unit patch. "It is hard to get away from our heritage," notes Berg-Olsen. While monitoring the Russian military is a primary focus for the eighty members of 333 Squadron, it is certainly not the only one.
"We have a lot of fish and a lot of oil and natural gas in our waters," Berg-Olsen continues. "Our two Arctic Ocean fisheries and the Norwegian Economic Zone off the coast are six-and-one-half times the size of the land area of Norway. It is extremely important to us to take care of Norway’s natural resources."
While cod may be getting scarce in other areas, they are plentiful in the Norwegian and Barents seas. Illegal fishing and dumping of fish are serious issues. "We catch people being in violation of fishery laws and regulations all the time, essentially overfishing the area," adds Schønfeldt. "We support the Norwegian Coast Guard with track information and visual and photo surveillance, including interpretation of suspicious activity. The coast guard can then go right to a suspect vessel and impound the fish and the boat."
One contentious issue between Norway and Russia involves fish, oil, and natural gas. Norway believes the boundary of its economic zone runs along the edge of the continental shelf, which juts into the Barents Sea at roughly a forty-five degree angle from the Norway-Russia border, and then curves back toward Norway. The Russians claim the edge of the zone should run along a north-south line directly up from the common border, which, looking at it on a map, tilts slightly to the right. This large, triangular-shaped piece of the sea is called the Grey Zone.
"Arctic areas are vulnerable," says Schønfeldt. "The government of Norway is concerned with the increased transport of oil from the Murmansk area. Fishing and our coastline could be ruined by oil spills." The Saints and the Norwegian Coast Guard closely monitor all traffic that could pose a hazard to the environment.
In addition to its primary missions, 333 Squadron also has NATO commitments. The squadron was part of Active Endeavor in 2005 and 2006 and NATO Response Force 5, 7, and 8 in 2004, 2006, and 2007. "We do our training on the Russians," Berg-Olsen observes. "When we go on exercises and deployments, we almost have to take a copy of Jane’s [widely known aircraft and ship reference books] with us to become familiar with the allied forces.
"During Active Endeavor in ’06, we flew out of Sigonella [Italy] and flew thirty-six of thirty-six scheduled missions with one aircraft. Although we did switch out the airplane, crew, and support personnel midway through the deployment, we had never recorded a success like that in this squadron," notes Berg-Olsen. "We had 60,000 air-to-surface contacts and found more than 9,300 different vessels. We even found a ship full of illegal immigrants."
Taking Care
"We are not a large organization, so we can send only a limited number of people on deployments," says Maj. Reider Eigeland, chief of the seventy-person maintenance section at Andøya. "The crews fly night and day, so we have to have maintainers there to do the work and keep the aircraft flying."
At Andøya, the maintainers are centrally located in two large hangars. One is an indoor wash rack. Although the aircraft get rinsed off every mission, continuous flying through sea air plus having to land on a sanded-down runway in winter necessitates that the aircraft go through thorough washings every thirty-five days to better prevent corrosion.
Three P-3s can fit in the maintenance hangar, which has one large fixed work stand to provide access to the tail. Movable platforms provide access to every area on the aircraft. "In the winter, we do all maintenance in the hangar," notes Eigeland. "In the summer, we work outside, because the weather is so nice.
"Our crew chiefs are not dedicated to any one airframe," Eigeland adds. "They are the crew chief of whichever aircraft happens to be here at the time. The crew chief is responsible for getting that aircraft ready to fly again. Our normal work shift is 7:30 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon, but the crew chief can call in specialists after-hours as needed."
The personnel at Andøya live either on base or in the nearby town of Andenes (An-den-ness). Many, like Berg-Olsen, were raised in the town or the surrounding area.
Despite the harsh winter climate, a large percentage of people assigned to the wing or squadron stay in Andenes. "We have one acoustic operator, Steinar Braathen, with more than 15,000 flight hours in P-3s," notes Schønfeldt. "He has been with the squadron since the early 1970s."
A Revitalized Fleet
On a mission, 333 Squadron normally flies with a crew of ten — two pilots and one flight engineer on the flight deck plus one tactical coordinator, one navigator, one radar operator, two acoustic system operators, one electronic surveillance measure system operator, and one ordnance specialist for the sonobuoys and weapons in back. "The crews normally fly nine-hour missions in the summer," says Schønfeldt. "They fly eight-hour missions in the winter. Flying in the dark is more demanding than daylight, and they can come back with more fuel in case they have to divert to a remote base because of weather."
The squadron members are assigned to one of six crews — down from nine at the height of the Cold War — but they are not hard crews. "We pool all the crews," says Berg-Olsen. "We are such a small squadron that we plug people in where they are needed." Today, squadron crew members average 2,500 to 3,400 flight hours. The average used to top 5,000 hours.
The squadron’s arsenal consists of Stingray torpedoes and depth charges, but on most missions the crews are armed with only sensors and cameras. A Survival Kit, Air Droppable, or SKAD, is carried in the weapons bay on the missions to aid any seamen in distress the crew may encounter. The kit has two rafts, each able to hold ten people with equipment.
Meeting all of the squadron’s varied missions in the near future will be a challenge. "All of our aircraft will be re-winged," notes Schønfeldt. "Work will start at the beginning of 2009. We are starting with the P-3Ns, and then the Charlies will follow. Installing the new wings and upgrading the aircraft will take approximately three years."
The two P-3Ns — named Bernt Balchen, in honor of the famous Norwegian polar explorer, and Finn Lambrecht, the first 333 Squadron commander — are P-3Bs that had Norway-specific modifications done in the early 1990s. The P-3N upgrade plan calls for the installation of a new radar, an electronic flight dis-play system, traffic collision avoidance system, satellite communications, a new intercom, autopilot, and other news systems. "The P-3Ns will be getting a huge improvement in capability," notes Berg-Olsen.
The P-3C aircraft — named Vingtor, Jøssing, Viking, and Ulabrand, all names given to the squadron’s Catalina aircraft in World War II — will also receive many of the same upgrades as the P-3Ns, along with a new navigation system and upgraded anti-submarine warfare systems. "The P-3Cs are heavier and twenty years younger than the P-3Ns, but we have been flying them extensively," notes Berg-Olsen. "We will have to replace their wings at the same time, but it will be worth the inconvenience. These aircraft should be up until 2025 and beyond.
"With only six aircraft and one squadron, we can’t be everywhere at one time," observes Berg-Olsen. "Whether we are transporting sea eagles to Scotland for resettlement — which we’ve done several times — or monitoring a Typhoon submarine in international waters, it is a matter of prioritization. But this squadron is an extremely important tool for the Norwegian government."
Jeff Rhodes is the associate editor of Code One.
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