Germany and Norway’s NATO Defense Alliance: Tanks to Submarines

11/09/2026

Germany and Norway are quietly building a super-alliance inside NATO.

In 1942, Germany’s battleship Tirpitz hid in a fjord on the edge of Levanger, in occupied Norway. On October 15 of this year, German engineers came back to Levanger, this time to build Leopard 2A8 tanks, and this time Norway invited them.

The new Ritek and KNDS plant is the first in Norwegian history to build main battle tanks. It runs on geothermal power, has a diving pool for fording tests, and can produce up to 36 tanks a year. It’s also just one piece of the Hansa Arrangement, a fast-growing German-Norwegian defense partnership that includes twelve identical Type 212CD submarines, the jointly developed 3SM strike missile, German P-8 Poseidons hunting Russian submarines in the GIUK gap, and a German rocket reaching orbit from Norway’s Andøya spaceport.

In this video I explain how North Sea gas, Russia’s Northern Fleet and doubts about American reliability are pushing Berlin and Oslo together, where Britain fits in, and which pieces are still only promises.

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