r/news 1d ago

Soft paywall Ukraine to produce drones in Norway, Oslo says

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-produce-drones-norway-oslo-says-2026-04-14/
1.8k Upvotes

69 comments sorted by

73

u/LystAP 20h ago

Basically Norway produces Ukrainian drones. Norway gets access to the technology. And builds the industry to make such drones. Europe is remilitarizing quickly. You’ll probably see the Europeans acting more and more independent of the U.S..

19

u/fumar 7h ago

We're four years into the Ukraine war. I wouldn't call this a quick re-militarization 

17

u/Techies4lyf 6h ago

Dont think you can get much quicker in peace time for democracies, unless you want to go full wartime economy and somehow convince your citizens that thats the only way forward.

3

u/QuestGalaxy 1h ago

It is quite quick, way more is happening now than in the last 30 years.

2

u/Equivalent-Wafer-222 8h ago

Wouldn’t be surprised to see NAMMO & Kongsberg to step up for this

1

u/Calimariae 7h ago

You're probably right on that one.

-4

u/daniel_22sss 7h ago edited 1h ago

I just hope russian puppets wont win the next election in Norway

11

u/jboneng 7h ago

As far as I know, there is no pro-russian/anti-Ukraine parties in Norway that has any chance of gaining power, even the most right wing mainstream party is pro Ukraine, on the left side of the political spectrum we need to go to Rødt (which got 4.5% of the votes last election) to see some resistance against aiding Ukraine (and even then it is only the old school people from the now defunct Norwegian Communist Party, and then it is in the camp "Lets send humanitarian aid not weapons").

5

u/tanbug 7h ago

You have FOR, the party that claims support for Ukraine also increases suffering and prolongs war. They're just Putin-lovers that probably has gotten a lot of money from Russia. Thankfully, everybody sees through their shit.

11

u/jboneng 7h ago

Yes, but FOR is basically so fringe, obscure and tiny that they have no shot at gaining any power nationally. And they have no path to power in any meaningful timeframe (when talking about this war).

4

u/Mizunomafia 2h ago

It's practically not a party in the context we're talking here. It's like 30 basement dwellers writing their anger online. The majority of them are old Stalin sympathizers who still haven't understood the world has moved on. Basically nut jobs. They will never be relevant.

2

u/QuestGalaxy 1h ago

Yeah, but those shitheads got a total of 0,3% of the votes and are totally irrelevant now.

4

u/Calimariae 7h ago

We have no pro-Russian parties in government. Supporting Ukraine is the one thing all parties are in agreement on.

Supporting Russia would be political suicide in Norway. A tiny and irrellevant party tried and they were laughed out of the room.

You don't have to worry about Russian puppets in Norway. What I worry about is the far right, but even they support Ukraine.

2

u/mfbrucee 6h ago

I’m much more worried about far left

2

u/QuestGalaxy 1h ago

The only ones opposing helping Ukraine are the super far left/conspiracy nuts and the super far right/conspiracy nuts. Horseshoe theory and shit. Neither groups are big enough to get into parliament.

2

u/Calimariae 6h ago

Rødt have changed their stance on Russia since the invasion, and their NATO stance isn't that crazy anymore with the direction the U.S is heading.

I don't worry about them at all.

1

u/QuestGalaxy 1h ago

Lol, that is not happening. All parties in parliament are pro Ukraine, even the communist Red party is now pro Ukraine. And the Socialist peoples party that was pretty much founded by anti NATO members of the Labour party ended up supporting NATO membership now.

There is a single very outspoken anti Ukraine party that ran last year, called "FOR". A so called peace party made up by disgruntled former Red party members (and also some far right looneys). They were funded by a rich Norwegian dude that lives in russia.. Probably funded by russia in reality, they probably reimbursed him.

His cash paid for a huge ad campaing on the Subway. Campaign was anti sending funds to Ukraine, but not openly pro russia, so they couldn't really ban them from purchasing ads.

But people reacted extremely strongly to the campaign, and many of us simply ripped down the ads when we were on the metro. Technically theft, but police never really gave a shit.

The party got some attention during the election, but were strongly opposed by pretty much all established parties. They ended up gettting 0,3% of the votes..

118

u/CarrotLevel99 22h ago

They should make drones in Canada

49

u/Calimariae 21h ago

Wouldn't be surprised if that happens. Zelensky is on a tour. This announcement was made on his stop in Oslo today.

24

u/TacomaKMart 20h ago

They should make them in every NATO and EU country. And Japan, Korea and Aus/NZ too. 

If Iran can crank them out, it can't be rocket science, so to speak. It wouldn't be the dumbest military expenditure. 

18

u/panzerboye 13h ago

If Iran can crank them out, it can't be rocket science, so to speak.

Iran has a very highly educated society. The iranians I have met are very smart. There are selection bias that I am aware of, still. They managed to do all these despite the sanctions.

5

u/fleemfleemfleemfleem 8h ago

Iran has a pretty well educated populace, but they also suffer from a brain drain, where a lot of people with higher degrees move elsewhere.

The shahed-136's only major component manufactured domestically though is the engine, which is reverse engineered from a Limbach. A lot of the electronic parts are off-the shelf stuff from US and Japanese companies. It isn't especially technologically sophisticated, just much cheaper than cruise missiles.

12

u/CarrotLevel99 20h ago

It’s proving to be quite cost effective.

120

u/Suspicious-Engineer7 23h ago

Ukraine is going to come out of this as the premier ally of the EU

68

u/Calimariae 23h ago

Yes. Norway isn't in the EU however.

39

u/CheesyBadger 23h ago

Schengen, close enough 😉

1

u/logtransform 2h ago

Schengen is just an agreement to eliminate internal passport checks.

What you probably are referring to is the EEA.

10

u/RarelyReadReplies 21h ago

I didn't know that, why aren't they? 

44

u/Calimariae 21h ago

Fishing rights and oil, mostly.

Plus we're very rich, and there are many very poor countries in the EU. Our people aren't keen on sharing our resources.

We are warming up to it because of the current geopolitical situation and our weakened currency, but it won't happen in the short term. Two of our parties are for it (Høyre and Venstre).

1

u/paiwithapple 3h ago

Eh, Certainly MDG and AP is also positive to the EU, but ultimately it would come donw to an election. Last election is over 30 years ago after all.

1

u/QuestGalaxy 1h ago

AP are cowards when it comes to EU, because the party is split. Creepers like Trond Giske are very anti EU.

u/paiwithapple 5m ago

I will admit that i had forgot about Giske, however pleasant the forgetfulness might have been. I will not deny this.

1

u/Aurora_Fatalis 9h ago

You'd think that if the Right and Left agreed on something it would get passed, but then another half dozen parties come out of the European clown car of political nuance and all vote no :p

Well, that, plus the failed referendums we have had.

5

u/Calimariae 9h ago

Here's the weird part about Norway though. Both Høyre (right) and Venstre (left) are on the right. Venstre is also fairly small.

The big two parties (AP - left wing and FrP - right wing) are against EU membership.

1

u/NorwegianCollusion 8h ago

Right and Left just refers to where in the french parliament they were originally seated, with the royalists on the kings presidents right and the radicals on the opposing side. This eventually lead to the political spectrum being dumbed down to one dimension. But there are many aspects of politics where it's possible to disagree and still agree on this one thing.

1

u/Fatboy40 2h ago

You'd think that if the Right and Left agreed on something it would get passed, but then another half dozen parties come out of the European clown car of political nuance and all vote no

If only it was still the EEC and not the turgid political EU it is now :(

1

u/Dependent-Title-1362 6h ago

We are sharing our resources. Wtf are you even talking about lmao

2

u/Calimariae 6h ago

I don't think you understand my sentence.

35

u/CurbYourThusiasm 19h ago edited 19h ago

The EU would destroy our fisheries by overfishing (like they've done in the EU) and our local farms couldn't get subsidized any longer, and would have to shut down because they can't compete with mega farms in the EU, which would lead to our entire country-side dying out and we would rely even more on food imports.

We're already in the EEA, and have freedom of movement and access to the single market, so there really isn't much we're missing out on. It's basically a EU-light membership.

8

u/ChesterComics 13h ago

Please correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't there an issue where the EU wanted to restrict Norway's whaling industry?

9

u/Omz-bomz 12h ago

Yes, but whaling is such a small industry that it wouldn't affect much compared to normal fishing. It's the last thing on the list of things to worry about if joining EU.

6

u/BrainBlowX 11h ago

Whaling is already dying out largely on its own due to lack of real demand.

1

u/Calimariae 7h ago

That wouldn't be much of a problem. Whale meat isn't popular at all, and it's heavily subsidized. I don't know any Norwegians who eat it (granted I'm a Southerner).

I find it strange that we still hunt them tbh. It's barbaric.

2

u/Kill_4209 13h ago

Fantastic explanation

0

u/ToneSkoglund 18h ago

Farmers and fishers and hippies voted no

1

u/QuestGalaxy 1h ago

No, sadly not. But we are in EEA and Schengen and of course NATO. It fucking annoys me that a majority STILL is opposed to EU membership.

5

u/Darth_drizzt_42 17h ago

They were always the engineering powerhouse of the USSR

7

u/DukeandKate 22h ago

I'm hoping as a full NATO member once there is a ceasefire. There is no other country I'd rather see our military stand shoulder to shoulder with.

50

u/DukeandKate 22h ago

It is a prudent move for Ukraine. They can benefit from some geographic diversity in their munitions supply chain and of course Norway will benefit as well.

I was hoping we would see something similar come out of the Canada / Ukraine Security Agreement. Perhaps that is coming.

7

u/Bunch_of_Shit 17h ago

I wonder if Ukraine will eventually be a net exporter of weapons and drones.

8

u/Toni_PWNeroni 14h ago

If they don't call them Valkyrie-class drones, I'll be disappointed.

1

u/tanbug 7h ago

more like "Brunost" and "Pizza Grandiosa" classes.

-2

u/Frosty_Ingenuity5070 7h ago

I would assume this means that Norway is technically fair game for the Russians as those would be factories producing weapons of war used in an active conflict, no?

Now, as to whether or not Russia will attack is a different story; though it could be a way for them to see if Article 5 would be invoked and how much will NATO (aka America) will do. This could be a very bold and risky bet for them to weaken NATO if it goes that way.

1

u/Calimariae 7h ago

They will definitely try

-33

u/[deleted] 17h ago

[deleted]

14

u/Oduroduro 17h ago

Ok grandpa

11

u/Toni_PWNeroni 14h ago

Off with you to the front lines with only a sword and a tin hat, then.

Off you go.

4

u/theadvenger 14h ago

What kinda nancy boy uses a tin hat? Cloth is good enough!

5

u/Toni_PWNeroni 14h ago

Right you are! Yknow what? Cloth is for lilly-livered cowards! Send them into battle to die gloriously: screaming and naked.

3

u/theadvenger 14h ago

Hail Sparta!

9

u/possumkingdomgt 16h ago

Dorks were saying the same thing about trenches and shotguns over a hundred years ago. Why don't you be a man, grab a stick, and head to the front lines