Øyvind Garvik - Commander Senior Grade (Ret'd)

Øyvind Garvik was born in Bergen, Norway, 1st October 1942. After High School he sailed in the merchant navy for a couple of years, until he joined the Royal Norwegian Navy in March 1963.

After initial radar operator and plotter training he served on a coastal radar station as petty officer, followed by a radar technician course, officer training, and further service on a coastal radar station. He then served on Fast Patrol Boats and as radar instructor at the Naval Training Establishment. Already in 1970 he had started his future in the specialized service of Electronic Warfare, responsible for radar and electronic warfare training. As Chief Petty Officer Radar/Electronic Warfare he served on Oslo class frigate in Standing Naval Forces North Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT), before he was appointed Lieutenant in 1976.

From 1980 he served as Electronic Warfare Officer for two years on the DA-20 Jet Falcon Electronic Warfare aircraft of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, with 700 flight hours of jamming, deception and ELINT.  

During these years he also completed several EW courses at HMS Dryad and NATO School (SHAPE) in Oberammergau, Germany, and was appointed Lieutenant Commander in 1982. From 1983 he served as the Norwegian representative to NATO Naval Information Exchange Group 1/Project Group 25 “On a Maritime Electronic Warfare Support Group” (IEG1/PG25 MEWSG), the organization that established NATO MEWSG.  In 1987 he was appointed Commander and served as the Norwegian representative to IEG1/Special Working Group 4 “On Electronic Warfare” (IEG1/SWG4) until 1992.

He completed the Naval Staff College in 1991, and from 1992 he served as staff officer at the Defence Headquarter/Naval Staff. In 1996 he was appointed Commander Senior Grade and served in various positions at the Joint Staff at the Defence Headquarter, until he retired in 2002. He has a total of 25 years of experience in EW.

He has written several articles on radar and electronic warfare history in major Norwegian maritime magazines, and has been the author of three books on naval history. In addition to “The history of the Royal Norwegian Navy Training Establishment 1964-2004”, “Waves as weapons – The history of Electronic Warfare in the Royal Norwegian Navy 1945-1995”, and “The Coastal Eye – The history of Coastal Radar Stations in Norway 1940-2010”, he has written the history of Norwegian ELINT vessels in the book “Hard to Starboard” by the Norwegian Naval Association.

He has also been a consultant to the Maritime Directorate on navigational radars and radar reflectors, and is at present a board member of a Norwegian radar company.

Robert is very happy to be credited in Øyvind's book “Waves as weapons – The history of Electronic Warfare in the Royal Norwegian Navy 1945-1995" as both a photo and information credit.