The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (''Forsvarets forskningsinstitutt'' – ''FFI'') is a

research institute A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural ...

that conducts research and development on behalf of the

Norwegian Armed Forces The Norwegian Armed Forces () are the armed forces responsible for the defence of Norway. It consists of five branches, the Norwegian Army, the Royal Norwegian Navy, which includes the Norwegian Coast Guard, Coast Guard, the Royal Norwegian Air ...

and provides expert advice to political and military defence leaders. In particular, its task is to keep track of advances in the fields of science and

military technology Military technology is the application of technology for use in warfare. It comprises the kinds of technology that are distinctly military in nature and not civilian in application, usually because they lack useful or legal civilian application ...

which might affect the assumptions on which Norwegian security policy and/or defence planning is based.

History

The institute was established in 1946. Its roots lie in Norwegian participation in British scientific research during the Second World War (see Allied technological cooperation during World War II). Many Norwegian scientists and technologists took part during the period when Germany occupied Norway between 1940 and 1945. FFI has 714 employees, of which approximately 360 are scientists and engineers. The main location of the institute is at

Kjeller Kjeller is a village located near Lillestrøm in the municipality of Lillestrøm, Norway. It is located 25 kilometers north-east of Oslo. Name The Norse form of the name was probably ''Tjaldir''. This is then the plural of ''tjald'' n 'tent'. ...

near Lillestrøm, 20 km east of the country's capital

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

. The Kjeller area is a hub of research activity in south eastern Norway, with a total of some 2,400 people working at a variety of research establishments, colleges and university departments. Part of the institute's Maritime Systems Division is situated in the coastal city of

Horten Horten () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Jarlsberg. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Horten (town) ...

, southwest of Oslo on the western side of the

Oslofjord The Oslofjord (, ; ) is an inlet in southeastern Norway. The fjord begins at the small village of Bonn in Frogn, Frogn Municipality and stretching northwards to the city of Oslo, and then curving to the east and then south again. It then flows s ...

. Horten is known as the country's

MEMS MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) is the technology of microscopic devices incorporating both electronic and moving parts. MEMS are made up of components between 1 and 100 micrometres in size (i.e., 0.001 to 0.1 mm), and MEMS devices ...

capital, and is also a centre of electronics and naval research and industry. In way of concrete technology products, FFI is known for, among other things: *The development of a range of computers in the early 1960s which eventually led to the creation of

Norsk Data Norsk Data was a minicomputer manufacturer located in Oslo, Norway. Existing from 1967 to 1998, it had its most active period from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. At the company's peak in 1987, it was the second largest company in Norway and em ...

as well as Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (KV)'s Computer Division: LYDIA (1962); SAM; SAM2. *Beginning in 1973, NDRE was an early researcher of

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...

in Europe, based on a connection to

SATNET SATNET, also known as the Atlantic Packet Satellite Network, was an early satellite network that formed an initial segment of the Internet. It was implemented by BBN Technologies under the direction of ARPA. The first heterogeneous computer ...

through NORSAR, along with Peter Kirstein's group at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

and RSRE in Britain. *The development, with KV's Division of Guided Weapons, of the

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

anti-ship missile *The development of the Radar Imager for Mars' Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX), an instrument aboard the

Mars 2020 Mars 2020 is a NASA mission that includes the rover ''Perseverance (rover), Perseverance'', the now-retired small robotic helicopter ''Ingenuity (helicopter), Ingenuity'', and associated delivery systems, as part of the Mars Exploration Progra ...

Perseverance rover that is a ground-penetrating radar designed to provide centimeter-scale resolution of the geologic structure of the planet subsurface.

Researchers

* Brynjar Lia * Torleiv Maseng * Thomas Hegghammer *

Svein-Erik Hamran Svein-Erik Hamran (born 1960) is a Norwegian professor in radar remote sensing at the University of Oslo. He led the development of the Radar Imager for Mars' subsurface experiment (RIMFAX) for the Mars rover Perservance as Principal Investi ...

Former researchers

* Fredrik Møller * John Kristen Skogan * Pål Spilling * Ernst Sejersted Selmer

References

External links

* * {{authority control Defence Research Establishment Defence Research Establishment Organisations based in Lillestrøm Government agencies established in 1946 1946 establishments in Norway Military research of Norway

History

Researchers

Former researchers

See also

References

External links