Tag Archives: icelandic coast guard

The Icelandic Coast Guard sees you, and they want you to know they see you

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The Icelandic Coast Guard (Landhelgisgæsla Íslands, or LHG) was established in 1926– predating the country’s independence by almost two decades– but has roots that go back to 1859.

And, as we have talked about in the past, they are the Stan “I didn’t hear no bell” Marsh of the racing stripers.

The plucky Icelandic Coast Guard Cutter Tyr chasing off one of HM’s much larger and better armed frigates during the “Cod Wars” in the 1970s.

The closest thing the country of 200,000 has to a uniform military service, the 200-member LHG has a small but well-cared-for collection of cutters and aircraft, and runs the Skógarhlí-based Iceland Air Defence System (Íslenska loftvarnarkerfið) whose four U.S.-established radar installations–formerly run by the country’s Radar Agency (Ratsjárstofnun)– augmented by satellites, provide a full-time surveillance capability of the country’s air and waters, interfacing with NATO and commercial ship tracking services.

The service recently posted that they had 295 active vessels at sea under the watchful eyes of the LHG, and that five Russian fishing vessels were huddled up, just skirting the line of the country’s EEZ.

As noted by the LHG (mechanically translated)

Surveillance and law enforcement with Icelandic jurisdiction is carried out both with remote surveillance and satellites alongside real surveillance carried out with TF-SIF [a Bombardier Dash 8-Q-314 maritime patrol aircraft], Coast Guard cutters Thor and Freyja, as well as Coast Guard helicopters.

Coast Guard ships have been monitoring the eastern part of the country lately and have, among other things, boarded foreign ships that fish herring within the jurisdiction. The journeys of these ships will continue to be closely monitored.

You’re damnned right they are closely monitored.

Skal!

Comfortable Shoes and Port Calls

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Here we see Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, the Icelandic minister of foreign affairs, visiting the 688i class hunter killer USS Newport News (SSN-750), while the boat is tied up remote Grundartangi, last week.

Those are some comfortable-looking shoes (USN image)

Newport News was escorted in by the Icelandic Coast Guard cutter Tyr (ICG image)

And assisted by Faxaflóahafnir-owned tugs. Faxaflóahafnir is a government (municipal) owned ports enterprise. (USN image)

(USN image)

Faxaflóahafnir operates Grundartangi as an industrial port some 45 minutes north of Reykjavik by car, while the nearest town, Hvalfjarðarsveit, has a population of about 600.

While it seems like such a small deal, it is big for Iceland, which has notoriously been hands-off when it comes to warships, even those of NATO allies, calling in the country’s ports.

As we’ve previously covered, the country has played host to at least a half dozen Amerian subs since April 2023– including one of SUBRON 12’s Block III Virginia-class hunter-killers, USS Delaware (SSN 791)-– in the waters of Eyjafjordur for partial resupply and crew swaps, becoming sort of a new Holy Loch North. However, this is the first time an SSN has been tied up.

The Navy made sure to note this latest visit as  “historic,” and Adm. Stuart B. Munsch, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and a career submariner himself, came aboard to pin on new Dolphins on the crew that earned them this deployment.

“Iceland’s support and strategic location are critical to collective defense in the North Atlantic,” said Munsch. “Our submariners stand the watch where few can, providing unmatched undersea dominance and ensuring our nations remain secure and free.”

Meanwhile, Newport News, commissioned in 1989, is one of the oldest boats still active in SUBLANT’s inventory and is slated to begin standing down in FY26. The Icelandic government was quick to note that she “ber ekki kjarnavopn” (does not carry nuclear weapons).

Holy Loch North

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One of the aces in the hole for the old-school Polaris Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines and their Trident descendants was Refit Site One, hidden in Holy Loch, Scotland near the Firth of Clyde.

Established as the forward base for SUBRON 14 around the tender USS Proteus (AS-19) and floating dry dock Los Alamos (AFDB-7) in 1961 with a small shoreside footprint, the tenders and SSBNs changed but Los Alamos endured and the base quietly closed after the thaw in the Cold War in 1991, capping its 30-year mission.

“Trident, The Black Knight.” USS Michigan (SSBN-727) rests quietly at the US Naval Base at Holy Loch, Scotland in 1988, waiting to be replenished for sea. Painting, Oil on Masonite; by John Charles Roach; 1984; Framed Dimensions 34H X 44W NHHC Accession #: 88-163-CU

Well, with Holy Loch long gone and the sub force still in need of some quiet out-of-the-way places to make occasionally needed pit stops on the surface, Iceland has become a friend indeed. Since April 2023, six SSNs– important to the Icelandic government nuclear-powered but not “officially” carrying nuclear weapons– have slipped into Eyjafjordur– a huge fjord in Northcentral Iceland some 15km wide and 60 km long, dotted by a few small villages and the town of Akureyri (pop 19,000)– for partial resupply and crew swaps.

For their part, Iceland provides logistical support and local security in the form of the cutters and crews of the Icelandic Coast Guard.

The ICG’s cutter Freyja recently assisted with one such service of one of SUBRON 12’s Block III Virginia-class hunter-killers, USS Delaware (SSN 791), over the weekend.

Via the ICG:

The service visits are part of Iceland’s defense commitments and an important contribution to the joint defense of the Atlantic Union. Their deployment here on land allows our allies to ensure continuity of surveillance, shorten response times, and send messages of presence and defense in the North Atlantic.

Meanwhile, down under…

In related news on the other side of the globe, the SUBRON15’s Guam-based Virginia-class hunter-killer USS Minnesota (SSN 783) arrived in sunny Western Australia on February 25, 2025, kicking off the first of two planned U.S. fast-attack submarine visits to HMAS Stirling at Freemantle in 2025.

250225-N-QR679-1011 ROCKINGHAM, Western Australia, Australia (Feb. 25, 2025) Sailors assigned to the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Minnesota (SSN 783) conduct mooring operations at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia, Australia, Feb. 25, 2025. Minnesota arrived in Western Australia kicking off the first of two planned U.S. fast-attack submarine visits to HMAS Stirling in 2025. Minnesota is currently on deployment supporting the U.S. 7th Fleet, the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered flee

250225-N-QR679-1002 ROCKINGHAM, Western Australia, Australia (Feb. 25, 2025) The Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Minnesota (SSN 783) prepares to moor at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia, Australia, Feb. 25, 2025. Minnesota arrived in Western Australia kicking off the first of two planned U.S. fast-attack submarine visits to HMAS Stirling in 2025. Minnesota is currently on deployment supporting the U.S. 7th Fleet, the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, operating with allies and p

So long, frigate busters

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Back in the 1970s, the Icelandic Coast Guard (Landhelgisgæsla Íslands) faced off with the much-larger (and NATO-allied) Royal Navy over fish in what has become known as the Cod Wars. Of course, it wasn’t just a fish issue, as the primary reason was the extension (with UN tacit agreement) of Iceland’s EEZ from 13 to 50 and then finally 200 miles out from shore. With British (and West German) trawlers refusing to accept the new limits and the ICG heading out to cut trawls (they sliced off no less than 82 nets), the RN sent successive waves of patrol frigates up to safeguard the fishing boats.

This, naturally, led to 1,500-ton ICG gunboats and 3,500-ton British frigates trading bows.

The two legends of the ICG from this era were the Danish-built Ægir and Tyr, equipped with an ancient 57mm M1896 hand-loaded low-angle deck gun and ice-reinforced hulls. Ægir specifically cracked hulls with HMS Scylla (7 June 1973) and HMS Lincoln (22 September 1973) while the late-arriving Tyr counted coup on HMS Salisbury and HMS Tartar (1 April 1976) as well as HMS Falmouth (6 May 1976), with the latter incident almost rolling the smaller Icelandic ship.

HMS Falmouth rams Icelandic Coast Guard Tyr May 6, 1976, taken from the Tribal Class Frigate HMS Tartar (F133)

We’ve covered Ægir and Tyr in great detail, as well as the Cod Wars, but now comes the end of the story. While the British long ago disposed of their Cod War-era frigates, Iceland has now done the same. Ægir, who retired in 2015 but was retained as a pierside trainer while ostensibly for sale, and Tyr, who retired earlier this year, have now been sold, their place was taken by the newer and more modern Freyja and Thor.

This occurred after the country’s beancounters pointed out that Ægir has racked up 37 million ISK (about $260K) in dock costs since she has been retired and is contributing little to the ICG’s mission other than being an unofficial (and unopen) museum piece and Tyr has recently joined her in mothballs.

In the end, they were sold to Fagurs ehf, a local shipping company, for 51 million ISK ($360K). Whether or not Fagurs uses them for anything but scrap remains to be seen but there has been some conjecture that Tyr, the better maintained and younger of the two, could find herself in the polar tourist trade.

The ICG held a disposal ceremony for the pair on 15 August.

So long, Tyr, King of the Cod Wars

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The mighty Landhelgisgæslan (Icelandic Coast Guard) cutter Tyr, with a bone in her teeth. She was the bane of many British Tars in the frigate force in the 1970s.

Named for the Norse god “concerned with the formalities of war—especially treaties—and also, appropriately, of justice,” the modified Icelandic Coast Guard Ægir-class offshore patrol vessel Tyr was built at Aarhus Flydedok A/S in Denmark in 1974-75, at a time when the smallest (by population) member of NATO was fighting some of the strongest members of the Alliance, over fish.

The two-vessel Ægir-class were humble little gunboats, some 233-feet overall on a reinforced ice-strengthened steel hull. Weighing in at a slight 1,500-tons (at their largest), their West German-made diesel suite sipped gas and gave them an impressive 9,000nm range at 17 knots, enabling their 22-man crew to stay at sea virtually as long as the groceries held out.

Their sensors were commercial. Their original armament was an old 57mm low-angle Hotchkiss-style gun built under license at the Royal Danish Arsenal in Kopenhagen in the 1890s. The shells for the guns were pre-WWII dated. They had helicopter decks that could accommodate the country’s three small helicopters, a commercial Sikorsky S-62A variant (TF-GNA) and two U.S. surplus Bell 47Gs (TF-HUG and TF-MUN, named after Odin’s two ravens)

Tyr was more robust than her half-sister Ægir, and was the largest vessel in the ICG until 2011, carrying the fleet’s flagship position for most of her career.

The reason Iceland, which had no official military, needed such vessels was to chase off interloping European trawlers inside the country’s 50-mile limit, reaping the bounty of Icelands cod fisheries. The ICG, in turn, fought off the West Germans (1972-75) and, much more spectacularly, the British in what was termed the First (1958-59) Second (1972-1973) and Third (1975-76) “Cod Wars.”

The Icelanders got aggressive with the British anglers, cutting their nets with specially-made devices.

This brought in the support of the RN, and the ICG and a host of British frigates spent most of the early 70s trying to ram and avoid ramming each other.

The UK frigate HMS Mermaid collides with the Icelandic Coast Guard Vessel Thor in March 1976, in one of the incidents in the Cod Wars between the two countries.

The principal RN frigates sent to fight in the Second and Third Cod Wars

 

Ægir specifically cracked hulls with HMS Scylla (7 June 1973) and HMS Lincoln (22 September 1973) while the late-arriving Tyr counted coup on HMS Salisbury and HMS Tartar (1 April 1976) as well as HMS Falmouth (6 May 1976).

Icelandic patrol boat Ægir circles around for a run at HMS Scylla

 

Tyr and Salisbury

HMS Falmouth rams Icelandic Coast Guard Tyr May 6, 1976, almost rolling the smaller gunboat, taken from the Tribal Class Frigate HMS Tartar (F133)

In time, Iceland and the UK patched things up and most of the ICG’s older vessels were retired but Tyr and her sister Ægir continued in service for another 40 years, participating in NATO maritime operations, being very active in EOD removal along Iceland’s coastline, and helping old “mother” Denmark police and secure the sovereignty of the Faeroes and Greenland.

She also had run-ins with the whale hippies over Iceland’s traditional harvest.

Tyr rammed by Greenpeace.

They were given extensive modernizations in 1997 and 2005 that upgraded the ships, replaced the old 57mm hood ornament with a more modern 1960s 40mm Bofors, and other improvements.

Once the Cold War thawed, there were other missions, and the class was sent to the Med to help in the EU’s counter-migrant operations there, with Tyr saving over 400 souls in one 2015 incident alone off the South East Coast of Italy.

Icelandic Coast Guard Tyr on EU fisheries duty in the Med

Class leader Ægir was retired in 2012, after a new construction OPV, Thor, was commissioned.

Now, with the South Korean-built Freyja joining the Icelandic fleet late last year, Tyr has recently hung it up as well.

Icelandic Coast Guard Tyr, 2021

Perhaps she will be saved as a museum. One could only hope.

A Cod…Peace

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This great shot taken from an 814 Naval Air Squadron Merlin shows the Type 23 (Duke)-class frigate HMS Westminster (F237), the Icelandic Coast Guard ship Thor, and Westminster’s sister, HMS Kent (F78), operating together during the opening phase of NATO Exercise Dynamic Mongoose off Iceland earlier this month. Unseen are three NATO submarines who are the OPFOR.

LPhot Dan Rosenbaum, HMS Kent

Of course, the Royal Navy and Icelandic Coast Guard may have been NATO allies since 1949, but that doesn’t mean they were friends by any accord.

Perhaps, you recall the Cod Wars?

Iceland on the scene

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When I was about 11, I devoured Tom Clancey’s Red Storm Rising. As I had previously red Sir John Hackett’s August 1984 , I was familiar with what to expect. If you haven’t read RSR, a good bit of it takes place in the NATO battleground country of Iceland, the only alliance member who had no armed forces and since then, I have had at least a passing interest in that nation’s defense. You see the Danes were responsible for the island defense up until WWII when the Allies occupied it and, by 1949, that legacy occupation became a NATO operation until the U.S. pulled out of Keflavik in 2006.

However, just because Iceland doesn’t officially have a military, doesn’t mean they don’t have rough viking-type guys out running about in uniform for the greater good.

Last night a 239-foot long 40 year old livestock carrier by the name of Ezadeen, sailing under a flag of convenience (Sierra Leone) lost power off the South East Coast of Italy while her crew beat feet. However, instead of cattle, the Ezadeen was packed with over 400 illegal migrants, mainly Syrian refugees, hoping to get to Europe by any means necessary.

Ezadeen under tow my Icelandic Coast Guard in the Med

Ezadeen under tow my Icelandic Coast Guard in the Med

The rescuer? The Icelandic Coast Guard ( Landhelgisgæsla Íslands) gunboat Tyr, who, in conjunction with the Italian Coast Guard, lowered a crew by helicopter to help get the ship under control and then took it under tow to the nearest port where immigrations and customs officials were waiting.

The Icelanders weren’t just passing through the Med on an extra long patrol, they, since December, have been part of an expeditionary force of EU member nations under the aegis of that organizations Frontex Border Security Agency called Operation Triton to put up a picket fence 30 miles southeast of Italy’s furthest coast consisting of two fixed wing surveillance aircraft, three patrol vessels, as well as seven teams of guest officers for debriefing/intelligence gathering and screening/identification purposes. The task: to stop illegal immigration by human traffickers from North Africa (the failed nation of Libya) and the Middle East (Syrian refugees).

The Icelanders have rescued four ships in the past month and have done yeoman service.

The 200-member coast guard, active since even before the island’s independence from Denmark in 1944, has long been the country’s sole military force. Equipped with just three offshore patrol vessels, one DHC-8 patrol aircraft, and a few helicopters, the ICG has consistently punched out of its weight class.During the Cold War, their ships constantly pulled up Soviet hydrophones and listening gear while trailing large Warsaw Pact ‘trawlers’ that conveniently passed very near NATO shore bases.

Speaking of trawlers…

In the 1960s and 70s, the plucky Icelanders fought the British Navy, then arguably the third largest in the world, to a virtual standstill over cod (The Cod Wars!)

You see, foreign trawlers were in Iceland’s waters scooping up all the fish which led to the Coast Guard deploying net cutting devices which severed the trawls of some 82 invasive vessels– most of them British, who sent in warships to stop the Icelandic gunboats.

RN Frigate HMS Scylla rams ICG guboat Odinn. (Credit-Ian-Newton)

RN Frigate HMS Scylla rams ICG guboat Odinn. (Credit-Ian-Newton) The size difference between the 208-foot/925-ton Icelandic ship and the 371-foot/3,300-ton Brit is amazing.

Armed with 1898-era Hotckiss 57mm popguns using fifty year old ammunition, the Icelanders instead chose to ram the Royal Navy frigates sent to protect British cod fishermen in disputed waters.

Icelandic patrol boat Tyr circles round for a run at HMS Scylla

Icelandic patrol boat Tyr circles round for a run at HMS Scylla

In the end the Brits withdrew, leaving the ICG as the dominant cod champions in the EEZ around the island.

In non-fish related combat, since the 1950s the organization has provided peacekeepers that have roamed from Palestine to the Congo under the UN while contributing small contingents of land-based specialists to Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the Global War on Terrorism and ISAF missions while others went to Kosovo under NATO.

They are masters of fooling with old sea mines, having to defuse thousands of them that have bobbed up in Icelandic waters since WWII.

As for the Tyr herself, she is a rather interesting little ship. Named after the one-armed Norse god of war and law(he lost his other hand to the giant wolf Fenrir), she was built in 1975 by Aarhus Flydedok, Denmark, is 1200-tons in displacement and 233-feet overall.

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giropsui7

Even though a little ship, she has a helicopter deck and hangar, and both surface search radar and hull-mounted sonar. Armament: a 40mm/70 Bofors dating back to WWII, and small arms.

You have to admit, that looks like fun, and the GMGs can double as firefighters on their day off

You have to admit, that looks like fun, and the GMGs can double as firefighters on their day off

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She is coming up on her 40th birthday with no plans to replace her or her even older sistership Aegir as of yet. As it was, during the Cod Wars she tangled with several British ships, even surviving a ramming by the Rothesay-class frigate HMS Falmouth (twice) while she herself was credited with tagging HMS Scyilla and HMS Juno among others. All of these she has long outlived.

And it seems at least, that 400 Syrian refugees are grateful for Tyr‘s firm hand this week.

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