OSLO, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- For the first time in its history, Norway will have two surveillance vessels in the northern areas to monitor Russian activities, newspaper Aftenposten reported on Tuesday.
The new spy ship Marjata is to be positioned on the east side of the Barents Sea, where it will remain to monitor Russian activities, the report said.
Russia has "forcefully re-armed itself in the northern areas, established and re-established bases with new types of aircraft and vessels," and this is why the Norwegian Intelligence Service has expressed the need for more monitoring capacity, it said.
Norwegian officials said the original plan had been to replace the old ship, Eger, with the new one, but Eger will also join Marjata in a few months.
"We observe Russian activity in our neighborhood. There is a special need for monitoring in the Barents Sea," Lieutenant General Morten Haga Lunde, head of the military intelligence service E-tjenesten, told Aftenposten.
He said they wanted to be present "at several places, in the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea," and the new ship had much better capacity than the old one.
Eger is to follow activity on the surface, like military and civilian transportation, risk transportation, as well as activity in the air and under water.
The new Marjata ship set sail in May, after being equipped with new material in the United States. The total price reached 1.5 billion kroner (184 million U.S. dollars). Eger will be furnished in Norway.
Eger will be based in Harstad and Marjata in Kirkenes.
Lunde said there was a budget increase for operating the two ships. "Only after we have properly used the new ship, will we know how much it costs to keep them in operation. I do not want to disclose the sums," he said.
The ships would be removed in the event of a real conflict and traditional war, but will be used "as long as it is justifiable" in the case of hybrid warfare, he added.
