U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3C Orion aircraft from Patrol Squadron VP-49 at Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland, 1971. (U.S. Navy Photo)
Going back to the first act of Red Storm Rising, American ASW aircraft based in Iceland was a mortal thorn in the side of the Red Banner Fleet’s submarines headed to the Atlantic. Originally established by the U.S. Army Air Force as Meeks Field in 1942 during the occupation of Iceland in WWII, by 1951 Naval Air Station Keflavik was up and running and remained in operation until it was closed in 2006 following the thaw in the Cold War.
Now civilian-run Keflavik Airport for the past 14 years, occasional NATO Air Policing units visit off and on to keep roaming Russian Bears away and, since 2016, Navy P-3s have increasingly passed through while new hangars have been constructed to accommodate P-8 Poseidons.
And, in an underreported story, ADM Robert Burke, commander of both U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa (CNE-CNA) and Allied Joint Forces Command (JFC) Naples, said it was possible a squadron of Poseidons could operate from Keflavik again.
A view of the U.S. Naval Air Station Keflavik, 19 August 1982. In the foreground are the ramp areas and facilities of the U.S. Air Force 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, with other facilities in the background. The two aircraft in the foreground are Lockheed P-3Cs of U.S. Navy patrol yquadron VP-26 Tridents. Also visible are three USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4C/D Phantom II fighters. In the background are three Lockheed HC-130 Hercules´, a Lockheed C-141B Starlifter, a Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker and a Boeing E-3A Sentry.
The Icelanders only kinda considered themselves part of Denmark in the days leading up to World War II and maintained their own armed police on a quasi-military footing complete with Krag rifles and Madsen LMGs for defense against invasion. There was a brief period of semi-independence after the Germans rolled into Denmark on 9 April 1940 that lasted a month until a battalion of British Royal Marines showed up with the RN in tow on 10 May to peacefully occupy the windswept island nation, swapping out for the nominally neutral Americans a year later.
With the Icelanders declaring independence in 1944 and the war ending the next year, the Americans made a formal basing request in October 1945, to which PM Ólafur Thors rejected. Then came a stormy few years that saw the Keflavik agreement which led the Americans to withdraw in 1947, Iceland’s only full scale public riot (over its entry to NATO), and the founding of Naval Air Station Keflavik (NASKEF) in 1951 after the Americans came back in force.
The Navy has allocated around $21.4 million in its 2017 budget to renovate the aging base in order to be able to station P-8s at the facility.
“The security environment in Europe, including in the North Atlantic, has changed for the past 10 years and Icelandic and US authorities agree on the need to reflect this in a new declaration,” states Foreign Minister Alfreðsdóttir.
Seems like everything old is new again.
And with that, I give you the Viking War Chant for Iceland’s returning soccer team.
