The Kvikk case is about a variety of birth defects in the children of the men who served on HNoMS Kvikk, a Royal Norwegian Navy fast patrol boat (FPB) of the Snøgg class.An investigation found that the ship's electronic systems were not to blame; no other cause has been established.Suspicion arose when two former officers accidentally met in the orthopedic department at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, and it was later revealed that in all eleven children already had been born with birth defects from 1987 to 1994.
[4] Kvikk was the only vessel in the Norwegian navy that was used as an electronic warfare (EW) vessel, and one widely discussed theory was that the powerful electromagnetic radiation from the boat's radio communication masts and radar led to several of those who served aboard the ship having children with clubfoot, and in some cases stillborn children.
[5] The idea was that the powerful radiation possibly damaged genetic material in the sperm of the men who worked aboard.
[10] In addition, four fathers who worked as electronic service technicians at the workshop of Haakonsvern got children with chromosome abnormalities.
VG immediately published a headline that read "Crown Prince Haakon Magnus of Norway is one of the many who is currently aboard the MTB vessels and may be exposed to radiation.
In the report, the Navy went far in rejecting any possible link whatsoever between birth defects to their children and that the fathers had served on Kvikk, and suggested statistical clustering as an explanation.