Meet ‘Hunter Troop,’ Norway’s groundbreaking all-woman special forces unit

Norway’s military has been open to women fighting in combat positions for over 30 years. While Special Forces units were also open to female soldiers, none had made entry into that country’s Navy SEAL-like FSK. It wasn’t until Norway was participating in anti-terror actions in predominantly Muslim countries that the nation’s military realized they had a need that could only be met by highly trained female soldiers.

So Norway created Jegertroppen, which translates to “Hunter Troop” in English. As forbidding as the name sounds, Foreign Affairs reports Hunter Troop was first established in 2014 for a practical reason:

“In Afghanistan, one of our big challenges was that we would enter houses and not be able to speak to the women,” explained Captain Ole Vidar Krogsaeter, an officer with Norway’s Special Forces Operations. “In urban warfare, you have to be able to interact with women as well. Adding female soldiers was an operational need.”

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Image courtesy of Norwegian Special Forces