Chapter 6: Norway’s defence cluster

The demand for expert and flexible armed forces requires continuous renewal, and Norway’s unflagging emphasis on defence technology keeps FFI busy. Its challenge is to make significant contributions to the development of the Armed Forces in their principal national defence role and as an effective participant in international security operations.

As the nature of armed conflict evolves, the demand for FFI’s research expertise increases. New communications technologies in new areas of conflict and new means of protection from biological and chemical weapons are typical of the fields in which FFI invests. The overall goal is to enable men and women in uniform to be more effective in the field, and to ensure safety on the job and their safe return.

Based at Kjeller, 25 km from Oslo, with a research unit at Horten – itself the site of a major high-technology cluster – FFI addresses these challenges through a broad spectrum of research topics ranging from the assistance of operational units to the support of national security policy via defence planning and technology studies. The area is home to a variety of research institutes, technology centres, colleges, universities and some of the Norwegian Defence Logistics Organization facilities, employing several thousand people altogether. Defence clusters have also developed in and around Kongsberg and Raufoss, both of which – together with Horten – have been designated national centres of excellence in various high-tech sectors. Interestingly, all of these communities originally developed as centres of military activity and/or arms and munitions manufacturing.

Analysis Division
FFI’s Analysis Division is one of Norway’s most important centres for applied defence and systems analysis, and enjoys a close collaborative relationship with sister organizations in several countries.

The division is mainly engaged in long term defence planning and the decision-making process, advising the Armed Forces on its organizational structure, composition and operations as the needs of the respective branches adapt to changing security challenges. The work of the division covers all aspects of defence analysis, including cost-efficiency, computer simulation, war gaming, broad studies of future technologies, security policy studies and scenario development.

Cost-efficiency analyses are carried out in connection with defence analyses or acquisitions of specific weapon systems. The division also looks at areas of vulnerability in the critical infrastructure of an increasingly interconnected society and recommends measures to reduce this vulnerability. Most of the security policy studies involve the threat of terrorism and countermeasures against it.

The Analysis Division also assists the Ministry of Defence by providing counsel on business policy and industrial strategy in connection with materiel procurements for the Armed Forces, military offset schemes and international collaborations on military materiel.

Projects span a number of different fields of expertise, ranging from mathematics and science to economics and security policy. Military officers assigned to the division’s various projects ensure that its work is firmly linked to the practical requirement of the Armed Forces.

	Tinkering with IT on a Norwegian frigate
	Computer training for engineers
	Desktop flight simulation

Information Management
The work of the Information Management Division’s 65-70 employees is divided into three principal areas of research: network-based defence, information operations, and modelling and simulation technology.

“Network-based defence infrastructure and decision support” describes all network-based defence activities that are not directly related to weapons or sensor technology. Projects range from technology-intensive research in information and communications systems to “softer” areas of study related to organizational structure and the management of human resources.

Military information operations cover electronic warfare (EW) and computer network operations (CNO). FFI’s work in EW includes the protection of larger platforms such as fighter aircraft and helicopters, communications and electronic support measures. As combat missiles are either infrared or radar homing missiles, defence systems must allow for EW involving both technologies. Platform protection encompasses radio communications and radar electronic support measures (ESM).

CNO is a relatively new field that has become increasingly important as society becomes steadily more interconnected and vital systems of infrastructure become more network based.

The third major area of activity for the Information Management Division, modelling and simulation technology (M&S), is currently a small speciality, but one that is expected to become a growth area for both FFI and the Armed Forces. Simulators for training purposes and experimentation are obvious areas of application, but the use of M&S in connection with military procurements and training for special missions (mission rehearsal) continues to grow in importance.

Land and Air Systems Division
Concept and systems development and operational experimentation are the specialities of this division. Its primary task is to contribute to the modernization and transformation of the Armed Forces – more specifically, Norwegian ground forces and the Air Force – by providing flexible operational capabilities suitable for tackling the altered nature of today’s security challenges and effecting qualitative improvements in the mission capability of the Armed Forces.

This work involves concept development and experimentation (CDE), testing and evaluation, concept and system development for aircraft, land vehicles, artillery, air defence, sensors, missiles and ammunition. Research tends to focus on surveillance technology, air- and ground-based combat systems and guided weapons.

In this context, the transformation process in the Armed Forces entails the replacement and/or upgrading of armoured combat vehicles, indirect fire and the establishment of new JISR (joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) capabilities. Other areas in which the Land and Air Division contributes valuable technical expertise and advice include the procurement of the new fighter aircraft, the introduction of unmanned air vehicles (UAV), smart weapons and innovative uses of satellite information.

FFI’s basic research programmes encompass a wide span of technological areas; most current projects are weighted towards electronics and engineering cybernetics. Activities are organized into projects, usually running for three years. The division also participates in a wide range of international collaborations.

Maritime Systems Division
The work of the Maritime Systems Division involves ongoing projects in experimentation, test and evaluation, concept and systems development for frigates, missile torpedo boats, and submarines. The division is also engaged in concept and systems development concerning vessels utilized in sea mine warfare and autonomous underwater vehicles and the interface between them.

R&D at the Maritime Systems Division is particularly focused on marine environment combat systems, combat management systems, sensor systems, navigation systems, and communications and weapons systems. A detailed knowledge and understanding of the geophysical conditions that affect these systems and how to capitalize on these conditions is a key element in the division’s work, as is the study of how sensors and weapons systems influence the marine environment.

The division strives to devise readily applied technological solutions that give greater value to the Armed Forces as a whole and to the Norwegian Navy in particular. A broad spectrum of technical fields is represented in the backgrounds of the research staff, including acoustics, signal processing, systems architecture, engineering cybernetics, physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science, data processing, combat systems, sonar systems, geophysics, computer technology, communications, navigation, meteorology, and biology.

The HUGIN AUV Programme
FFI has developed autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for both civilian and military use for more than fifteen years in collaboration with Kongsberg Maritime AS. Some HUGIN vehicles are owned and operated commercially by survey companies; others are suitable for a number of military operations such as mine countermeasures (MCM), rapid environmental assessment (REA), anti-submarine warfare (ASW), and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Protection Division
The Protection Division is a national centre of expertise in protection against weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and conventional weapons. Its specialist areas include threat assessment, vulnerability analysis and protection measures, areas in which competence is contingent on the understanding of how nuclear weapons, biological weapons, chemical weapons, radiological weapons and conventional weapons work and the kind of effect they have. Much of the division’s expertise is also applicable to tasks within the civil sector. For example, the division carries out assessments of the various contingency plans which are relevant in both civilian and military contexts; it also develops techniques for detecting the use of WMD, as well as developing and testing protective equipment and medical treatments, and studies the physiological consequences to the human body of intensive operations in cold climates with little rest and minimum sustenance.

The activities of the Norwegian Armed Forces are subject to stringent environmental restrictions. FFI carries out research in the problem of environmental pollution by heavy metals in Norwegian shooting and exercise ranges and studies the consequences of removing contaminated lake sediments and placing them in a waste disposal site.

The Normans project
Rapid transition towards a network-based defence also affects the way in which the individual soldier will operate and the type of equipment he or she will carry. The Protection Division works in close cooperation with the Armed Forces on NORMANS, a collaborative effort in developing the soldier of the future. NORMANS (Norwegian Modular Network Soldiers) encompasses protective gear, sensors, weapons and communications. The Armed Forces are deeply committed to the security of our soldiers, and to that end, FFI is developing modern protective equipment for land vehicles and camp areas.

The Transnational Radical Islamism Project
This research project on Jihadi groups – ideologies, motivations, radicalization, recruitment processes and types of operations – is one of FFI’s most interesting activities. Launched in response to events following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, TERRA, which falls under the Establishment’s Analysis Division, seeks to provide in-depth academic analyses of contemporary Jihadi movements.

FFI has conducted research on international terrorism since 1999. Previous work includes studies of globalization’s impact on future patterns of terrorism, classification and categorization of Islamist movements, textbooks on primary sources on the al-Qaida leadership, the role of sanctuaries in Islamist insurgencies, and terrorist targeting of petroleum production facilities and civilian infrastructure.

Compound surveillance
FFI is especially proud of its award-winning chemical, atomic and toxic surveillance system (CATSS), which monitors civil and military installations for toxic industrial materials or chemicals and chemical and radiological agents. Portable and easily deployable CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear) surveillance systems are an invaluable protection against acts of terrorism using such materials. FFI has developed a prototype surveillance system to learn more about how a sensor unit should be designed and how the information from such systems should be received and handled further in a Command, Control and Information (C2I) network. The system is especially suitable for protection of perimeters and will make early warning possible after a hostile attack or accidental spill. It is flexible and can be easily adjusted to the needs of civilian as well as military users – for example, protecting the Norwegian Parliament, underground stations, sports facilities or oil installations.

The CATSS system consists of one or more central computers and a number of portable and easily deployable sensor units. Each sensor unit has exchangeable sensors for toxic industrial materials/chemicals, chemical warfare agents and radiological materials, plus sensors for registration of wind, temperature and relative humidity together with a GPS receiver. The information from the sensors is stored and further processed in a CPU in every sensor unit and sent to the central computer by radio communication or cable. The data will show how the toxic material is spreading and how large the danger area is likely to become. The user can then quickly start evacuating personnel from the danger area or initiate necessary protective measures.

Norwegian F-16 Falcon over the North Sea