Beredskapstroppen

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Beredskapstroppen

Shoulder patch
Active 1976 – Present
Country Flag of Norway Norway
Type Special Operations
Role Counter-Terrorism and Law Enforcement
Size 71
Nickname Delta, BT
Engagements Torp hostage crisis
Kosovo crisis (Trough Special Team Six)
Commanders
Current
commander		 Anders Snortheimsmoen

Beredskapstroppen, nicknamed Delta, is a specialized police unit situated in Oslo, Norway. It is the main counter-terrorist force in Norway, trained to perform dangerous operations such as high-risk arrests and hostage situations. The team members are recruited from the ordinary police force.

Located in Oslo, the force has responsibility for the whole country, including oil installations in the North Sea. Beredskapstroppen took part in the dramatic hostage situation at Sandefjord Airport on September 29, 1994. Delta is similar to FBI Hostage Rescue Team in the United States. Unlike the rest of Norwegian Police, they are routinely armed, weapons including Glock 17 pistols and MP5 submachine guns.

Beredskapstroppen spend 50 % of their time training and preparing for missions, and the rest of the time they normally work like ordinary law enforcement in Oslo. For training in close quarters combat they often use a specially built city inside Rena military camp close to Rena which originally was built for training the Telemark Battalion and other military special forces.

Since October 2006, Beredskapstroppen has been more in the media because of the government's war on gang crime in Oslo.

[edit] Operations

According to Beredskapstroppen's web site, they conduct in average almost one armed operation every day. In 2004, for instance, they conducted 422 armed missions and only fired their weapons twice. Unlike rest of the Norwegian police, Beredskaptroppen is routinely armed. When the units is not needed for armed operations, they do ordinary police work in Oslo which is meant to be a good use of resources.

One of Beredskapstroppen most dramatic missions was the Torp hostage crisis. Where an elderly couple and two police officers were taken hostages by two foreigners. In the end of the two day drama, Beredskapstroppen executed a rescue operation rescuing all of the hostages and killing one hostage taker and arresting the other.

In the NOKAS robbery aftermath, Beredskapstroppen arrested many suspects involved with the robbery. During the robbery one policeman from Stavanger was shot dead by one of the robbers.

Since October 2006, Delta has focused their operations against gang crime in the capital of Oslo and arrested many criminals and seized many weapons used by the gangs.

Members of Beredskapstroppen has also been deployed in Special Team Six. (See below)

[edit] Deployment in Special Team Six

Members of the unit has been deployed in the multinational police unit, Special Team Six many times. Team Six has most notably served in Kosovo. The units task was to arrest war criminals among others. According to one of the Delta operators, during a rescue mission, grenades and bullets flew over their heads while Team Six rescued 50-60 persons from furious albanians.[1]This incident was a rescue of UN personnel trapped in a building. Team Six was commanded by a Norwegian operator from Beredskapstroppen during this mission and during the period January-July 2004. According to sources, the unit has saved hundreds of lives during its missions in Kosovo. Beredskapstroppen has got personnel deployed in Team Six ever since its foundation.[2]

[edit] Equipment

Weapons:

Beredskapstroppen has got two Rigid-hulled inflatable boats. Both of them has got three engines with a total of 675 HP. When it comes to air transport, Beredskapstroppen uses military Bell 412 SP from the RNoAF. The operators use a special type of visor on their helmets which can withstand 9mm bullets. Other units using this visor type is French GIGN. The unit uses a gas mask with a closed system (rebreather). They also used advanced equipment to determine the type of chemicals they are up against with. They wear slightly different uniforms, instead of the normal black pants and blue shirts they wear black jumpsuits and often, but not always, drive an unmarked Chevrolet Suburban. These Suburbans are very easy to spot because of a large firetruck ladder on the roof.