National Defence committee  Yes, definitely. Today the Arctic Council is, first of all, a question of foreign policy, but I think they should bring defence policy, defence issues, into the Arctic Council. Definitely, that's one of my main topics. We should bring also security policy and defence policy int

National Defence committee  You are talking about the lifetime cost.

National Defence committee  Thank you.

National Defence committee  Number one, I feel like I'm home in Norway when I'm looking at you now. There is an opposition in Norway too, so this gives me really a good home feeling. We have exactly the same thing in Norway, where the opposition was the last government, and asks the government what it's doi

National Defence committee  It's about $10 billion U.S. That's for 51 or 52 air fighters. That's $10 billion today, but I'm sure there could be another answer in just a few months, when we know more about what's happening in the United States. I'm sure that they are going to put some of their procurement to

National Defence committee  Our pilots will be in the F-35s in 2016, in the fighter. They are following the program very closely. I asked my people there, our pilots, “Are we doing the right thing? What do you feel about the F-35s? Do you miss the F-16s when you are cooperating with Lockheed Martin and al

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, I'm going to give a short answer. I know the time is running out. Let me start with NATO. Yes, of course, it's a problem that nearly all European countries are cutting their defence budgets. That's a problem. Norway is one of the few who are able to increase the b

National Defence committee  Yes. Thank you for the question, and also congratulations on serving for your country in Afghanistan. There are a lot of practical lessons learned. For example, Norwegian soldiers who been in Afghanistan are better soldiers when they come back to Norway. That is building deterr

National Defence committee  It is a very good question. You can answer it in different ways, but for Norway there is one single answer. Norway has to be relevant for the 28 partners, the members. It's important for Norway to take part in the operations in Libya, but if NATO is not exercising in the 28 count

National Defence committee  I will let my admiral help answer that, but let me just start by adding two important issues. Number one is that if we are planning for a world where no one in the next generation can put our security at risk, we shouldn't procure F-35s. We should build hospitals and schools. B

National Defence committee  I understand. Number one, 20 years ago the number of brigades in Norway was 13. Today it's one. But this single brigade, I would say, is better for the need today than the 13 were. We had 15 different bases for our navy. Today we have one and a half. We had double the frigates,

National Defence committee  Is your question related to how Norway deals internationally?

National Defence committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I am very impressed with the way you said the Norwegian last names. It's not easy to speak Norwegian as well as you did now. I guess the reason is that Mr. Roald Amundsen was here a hundred years ago, and you must really be inspired by him to