333 SQN — Open for Business

333 Skvadron (333 Squadron), Royal Norwegian Air Force — the "Catalina Squadron," 133 Air Wing, Evenes Air Station · Allied · 2023-2024

Norway's 333 Squadron traces its line to the Catalina flying-boat crews who hunted U-boats out of Scotland in 1942, and it has watched the northern approaches ever since — first with Catalinas, then Albatrosses, then four decades of P-3 Orions. When the last Orion mission was formally handed over at Andøya on 30 June 2023, the squadron moved to Evenes and stood up on the Boeing P-8A Poseidon, becoming Norway's first — and NATO's northernmost — Poseidon squadron. This patch marks that initial operational capability with a sunrise silhouette and a stamp reading OPEN FOR BUSINESS: the Arctic maritime patrol mission never paused, it just changed airframes. It was handed to SSgt Sally during exercise NORDIC RESPONSE 2024, when 20,000 troops from 14 nations worked the same cold water the Catalina crews once did.