Iceland Defense Force

The Iceland Defense Force (IDF ) was inserted and operated by the U.S. military organization, with headquarters in the Icelandic town of Keflavík. Their deployment was due to the Cold War. It was created at the request of the Icelandic government after the country's entry into NATO. The members of the IDF came mainly from the United States Marine Corps, the United States Navy and the United States Air Force. They also had local civilian staff and worked closely with the local authorities, especially with the Icelandic Coast Guard. Iceland itself has only very limited military resources ( → Military situation Islands ).

The staff strength of the IDF was about 1,350 U.S. soldiers, 100 U.S. civilians and 650 Icelandic civilians. You were also part of soldiers from Norway, Denmark, Great Britain and Canada. Even members of the Icelandic firefighters were part of the Iceland Defense Force.

Basically, the name of the organization was always written out according to the rules of American English, as the acronym IDF could be confused especially with the similarly abbreviated Israeli forces.

On 15 March 2006, the U.S. Ambassador unilaterally announced the dissolution of the American contingent. September 30, 2006 the last soldiers left Keflavik. About the future settlement of the bilateral defense agreement is negotiated. There are, nevertheless, that in the future the North European NATO partners Denmark ( sea defenses ) and Norway ( air defense ) will take over the central tasks of the Icelandic national defense together with the Icelandic Coast Guard and police.