Iceland, NATO’s Mid-Atlantic Member, Becomes a Participant in Military Matters

Although it has no armed forces, Iceland is becoming increasingly active in the military affairs of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization--mainly because of where itis.

Most of the activity is in permitting the United States to beef up the U.S. Air Force and Navy contingents on the Arctic Circle island, a development endorsed in the Foreign Ministry’s annual report released recently in conjunction with debates in the Althing, or parliament.

“We’re now discussing military matters with our NATO neighbors to get their perception of the situation around us,” said Sverrir Gunnlaugsson, who as defense spokesman for the Foreign Ministry is the Icelandic official most closely involved in military matters.

“There has been a realization that the world is not going to go by us, and we are now participating in our membership in NATO. We are the only civilian members who attend the NATO meeting in Brussels,” he said in the report.

U.S. Forces Upgraded

Iceland is on the sea and air routes used by Soviet submarines and aerial reconnaissance planes in the North Atlantic. With Soviet activity reported to be steadily increasing, Iceland over the last few years has agreed to allow the upgrading of the U.S. forces that man the NATO base at Keflavik, 25 miles from Reykjavik, the capital.

Iceland joined NATO when the organization was founded in 1949, but with its tiny population, about 240,000 today, it has no defense forces. In 1951 it entered an agreement with Washington that gave the United States responsibility for Iceland’s defense. About 3,000 U.S. Air Force personnel and Navy fliers are based at Keflavik.

The Keflavik Air Base, which is also Iceland’s international airport, is being modernized at U.S. expense in line with Iceland’s more active stand. In 1987 a new airport terminal will be opened at Keflavik to separate civilian traffic from military activity.

New Hangars, New Planes

Four new hangars, in addition to the nine already in use, are being built to house F-15 fighter-interceptor aircraft. The Norwegian-designed hangars will have walls four feet thick.

Replacing 12 F-4e Phantoms, 18 more potent F-15s have been deployed to Iceland in the last year. They are directed by two ground-based radars and two aerial surveillance aircraft.

An update of the radars is planned, and two new radar stations are being built in the west and northeastern regions of Iceland. They are expected to be completed by 1988.

The project also includes new command and control facilities and a new system for storing and handling aviation fuel. A harbor and oil depot are being built at a cost of $170 million to improve fuel operations for the Keflavik base. When complete in 1988 the harbor will be able to take 35,000-ton oil tankers.

‘Strategic Importance’

Gunnar Gunnarsson, a member of the Icelandic government’s Commission on Security and International Affairs, said in the Foreign Ministry report that Iceland is of “key strategic importance to NATO in order to protect the sea lines of communications across the Atlantic.”

“In view of developments in the Soviet bomber force and cruise missiles, the Icelandic government has authorized a project to upgrade the air barrier in the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap by increasing the air defense capabilities of the Keflavik base. The main new development in Iceland security policy is that the past inactive stand of the country is changing,” Gunnarsson said.

Opposition Communist and Social Democratic lawmakers opposed the building two new radar stations a year ago, but an Althing vote of 42 to 15 decisively approved the measure put forward by the Progressive Party-Independence Party coalition government.