Defence of Iceland
[5][6] Additionally, there is a Crisis Response Unit (ICRU), operated by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which is a small peacekeeping force that has been deployed internationally, since 2008.
There is a treaty with the United States, which until 2006 maintained the Naval Air Station Keflavik, regarding the defence of Iceland.
The base, now operated by the Icelandic Coast Guard, has been regularly visited by the US military and other allied NATO members.
[7] In 2017 the United States announced its interest in renovating a hangar, in order to accommodate a Boeing P-8 Poseidon ASW aircraft at the air base.
[15] In the period from the settlement of Iceland, in the 870s, until it became part of the realm of the Norwegian King, military defences of Iceland consisted of multiple chieftains (Goðar) and their free followers (þingmenn, bændur or liðsmenn) organised according to the standard Nordic military doctrine of the time in expeditionary armies such as the leiðangr.
Amphibious operations were an important part of warfare in Iceland in this period, especially in the Westfjords, but large naval engagements were rare.
In the decades before the Napoleonic Wars, the few hundred militiamen in the southwest of Iceland were mainly equipped with rusty and mostly obsolete medieval weaponry, including 16th-century halberds.
But at the onset of Second World War, the government was concerned about a possible invasion, and decided to expand the Icelandic National Police (Ríkislögreglan) and its reserves into a military unit.
The IDF, created at the request of NATO, came into existence when the United States signed an agreement to provide for the defense of Iceland.
[21][22] During the Icesave dispute with the British and Dutch governments, Iceland made it clear that UK patrols in its airspace were not appropriate given the state of affairs and subsequently on 14 November 2008 the UK had to cancel its patrols and defense of the Icelandic airspace, which before the dispute had been scheduled to start in December 2008.
The Agency took over operations at Naval Air Station Keflavik, but was closed in 2011 in the wake of the economic crisis, with functions distributed to the existing organizations.
Today the Coast Guard remains Iceland's premier fighting force equipped with armed patrol vessels and aircraft and partaking in peacekeeping operations in foreign lands.
The Iceland Air Defence System or Íslenska Loftvarnarkerfið was founded in 1987, and operates four radar complexes, a software and support facility and a command and report centre.
[citation needed] The formation and employment of the unit have met controversy in Iceland, especially by people on the left of the political scale.
In October 2004, three ICRU personnel were wounded in a suicide bombing on Chicken Street in Kabul that killed a 13-year old Afghan girl and a 23-year old American woman.
[citation needed] In 2008, the uniformed ICRU deployed personnel still armed for self-defense returned their weapons and changed to civilian clothing.
