By Gwladys Fouche
OSLO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Norway expanded on Thursday a recently created military brigade headquartered in the Arctic, the latest move by a NATO nation to boost its defence footprint in the wake of the Ukraine war.
The NATO member established the Finnmark Brigade last year, forming the country's second brigade and the first one set up since the end of the Cold War. Both brigades have their headquarters in the Arctic.
Norway, like the other Nordic countries, has steeply increased its military budget in response to the Ukraine war and U.S. President Donald Trump's push to get European allies to contribute more to defence.
The Nordic country is now in the top ranks of NATO defence spending when measured as a proportion of a country's GDP, spending an estimated 3.17% this year on defence, up from 1.5% in 2014, according to NATO figures.
One of the Finnmark Brigade's main duties until now was to surveil and patrol the 198-km (123-mile) border Norway shares with Russia.
It is being expanded to include an artillery battalion, air defence battery and communications company that will enable it to carry out certain actions, such as firing at targets on land some 40 km away or coordinating firing with planes and ships from both Norwegian and NATO forces.
"This is a completely different level of firepower than what has been used before," the head of the brigade, Brigadier John Olav Fuglem, told Reuters in a phone interview from Porsangmoen, where the brigade is headquartered.
Porsangmoen lies some 180 km from Norway's border with Russia in a straight line. The Russian region on the other side is a major military hosting area, including for Russia's Northern Fleet.
"We will answer every threat and attack on Norway and NATO. We will defend every centimetre," Defence Minister Tore Sandvik said in the same phone interview with Reuters.
The Russian embassy in Oslo did not reply to a request for comment.
Moscow has previously dismissed allegations that it poses a threat to NATO.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; Editing by Paul Simao)
