Autumn at Haninge garnison

The military base at Berga seen from a pier at my favorite beach.

HMS Loke

This is HMS Loke. At first sight the ship may not look that impressive. But impressive it is. Built at Oskarshamnsvarvet in 1994, it is the only ship of it's kind in the world. Thirty-six meter long and nine meter wide it can carry 150 tonnes. It can do 12 nautical mile per hour. It is based at the 1st Marine Regiment at the Haninge garrison at Berga. It is a very flexible vessel. It can carry 90 m3 diesel and produce fresh drinking-water. It is used to carry supplies like fuel, vehicles, ammunition and water. It is also used as a military kitchen, repair unit, medical facility and it can assist with firefighing. And can also be used in a Search and Rescue situation. In my book that is quite impressive.

How to hide in plain sight

Some of the soldiers from the Amphibious Regiment at the Haninge garrison were nearly impossible to spot. And that's how they like it. But I decided to prove them wrong! Proof No. 1 is the marine on the first photo. He is there, but you can't really see him, so you can't be 100% sure that he really is there! For that he can thank his ghillie suit. The diver on the second photo is also tricky to spot. He is a frogman. And is often out on dangerous underwater operations. But I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of him and that is proof No. 2.

Haninge Garrison

Here are a few photos of some of the soldiers and civilians that I met at the Haninge garrison on Saturday. On the first photo you can see four members of the Swedish Amphibious Corps. In Swedish that is the Amf 1. They are part of the navy and have their headquarters here at Berga. Hands-on approach might be a good title for the second photo. Everyone that wanted to have a closer look at some of the weapons used by all the different soldiers could do so as proved here. And as the garrison is big and there was a lot of walking around to do it was nice to be able to try some of the freeze-drying food that the military had on offer. The meal here that I ate contained 800 calories according to the smiling soldier that served it to me.

The 4th Naval Warfare Flotilla

Here are a few photos from my visit to the Haninge garrison yesterday. Top photo shows HMS Sundsvall. It is a corvette based at Berga. It belongs to Fjärde sjöstridsflottiljen. The ship took part in an UN operation after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
On the second photo you can see one of three Combat Boat 90 that took part in a show yesterday. The boat is a fast military assault craft and has been sold to many navies around the world.
Third picture shows two vessels from the Swedish Amphibious Corps. They are rebuilt Combat Boat 90 ships that today serves as medical treatment ships. More military stuff to come.

007 Lindgren

This is 007 Lindgren. She is in charge of the minehunting on one of the minehunting vessels at the Haninge Garrison at Berga. Her job is to actively detect and destroy individual naval mines. She told me a little about her work when I met her at the Haninge Garrison. The Swedish Navy opened the gates for visitors today so I decided to pay them a visit. I stayed for a few hours and took around 100 photos. More photos to come in the next few days.