4 Nordic ‘NATO’ Countries To Create 250-Jet Joint ‘Arctic Air Force’
Paul Crespo, American Liberty
ANALYSIS – Even as Turkey and Hungary hold back Sweden's entry into NATO and Finland is still not formally admitted (but expected to join in weeks), both are joining an unprecedented new club with their Nordic brethren Denmark and Norway – the joint jet fighter force.
Their four air forces agreed to operate their roughly 250 jet fighters as one fleet based on NATO methodology and tactics.
And their focus will be protecting NATO's northern flank as well as the Arctic.
Together, said the commander of the Danish air force, Major General Jan Dam: “Our combined fleet can be compared to a large European country.”
Their air forces operate a mix of jet fighters, including Jas Gripens and F-16s and F-18s, as well as newer stealth F-35s.
Sweden will continue to maintain a fleet of new modernized Gripen E and C/D models.
Denmark will begin replacing its F-16s with F-35s this year, and Finland is slated to replace its F-18s with F-35s beginning in 2026.
Norway already operates F-35s but will add to that fleet by 2025.
Once admitted, adding Sweden and Finland's air forces to NATO more than doubles the number of fourth- and fifth-generation fighters currently planned to be fielded by the Nordic members of NATO.
A declaration of intent on March 16 by the Finnish and Danish forces was published Thursday and Friday, respectively, according to statements.
But it's not just a joint fighter force.
The intent is a fully unified Nordic air defense system aimed at countering the rising threat from Russia.
“We would like to see if we can integrate our airspace surveillance more, so we can use radar data from each other's surveillance systems and use them collectively,” Dam said. “We are not doing that today.”
“The ultimate goal is to be able to operate seamlessly together as one force by developing a Nordic concept for joint air operations based on already known NATO methodology,” Denmark's air force said.
Bloomberg reported that “The cooperation will encompass integrated command and control, operational planning and execution, flexible deployment of forces, joint airspace surveillance and training.”
This unprecedented development would not have been possible just one year ago before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in february 2022. That brutal attack spurred both Finland and Sweden into dropping their historic neutrality and applying to join NATO.
Then, as early as July 2022, talk began of creating a ‘Nordic air operations center.'
Maj. Gen. Rolf Folland, chief of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, said at the time that he had already begun thinking about opportunities for better integration with Sweden and Finland's air forces.
Folland added that a planned air operations center was just one of the plans to “explore with my foreign colleagues the most.”
Clearly, Norway and its Nordic partners took the idea and ran with it.
As Breaking Defense reported, Gen. Folland also said: “If we can plan to use this force in a holistic, joint, combined manner” under Headquarters Allied Air Command based at Ramstein Air Base in Germany “I think this would be a benefit for us, and it can be a benefit for NATO.”
The new joint Nordic air force will add tremendous capabilities in Europe's far north. In June, Finland decided to base the first new F-35 fighter jets at Rovaniemi Air Base located on the Arctic Circle and less than 250 miles from Russia's critical submarine bases on the Kola Peninsula.
Meanwhile, Sweden has an air base in Luleå, its northernmost region.
Norway, reports the Barents Observer, which already has received 34 of 52 F-35s, has its main airbase at Ørlandet in the south, but a few of the stealth planes are on Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) for NATO at Evenes air base north of the Arctic Circle.
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Paul Crespo is Managing Editor of American Liberty Defense News. He served as a Marine Corps officer and as a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at U.S. embassies worldwide. He brings decades of political and national security experience to cover the critical issues that threaten our American liberty – at home and abroad. For additional reportage on all things national security, subscribe to Paul's Substack here.
