Stealth Fighters Need Runways. Luckily, The Norwegians Are Experts At Setting Up Airfields, Fast.

The U.S. military is scrambling to develop new units and methods for quickly setting up rough airfields in inhospitable places.

The goal—to spread out warplanes across more bases, hopefully making it harder for the Russians or Chinese to ground American air power with barrages of ballistic missiles.

One NATO ally could point the way forward. The Norwegian air force historically has been a world leader in dispersed operations. And for good reason. The country has one of the longest coastlines in the world—and vast air space.

And yet the Norwegian air force is small. Today it’s settling on a long-term fleet of just 52 F-35 fighters. Those fighters are concentrated at one major base: Orland in central Norway.

From there, they must stage up and down the 1,100-mile north-south span of the country for patrols over Norway, up over the Arctic Ocean and west over the North Atlantic. And since the air force doesn’t have its own tankers and must borrow them from NATO, the fighters often deploy without aerial refueling.

That means bases. Lots of them. Most of them are idle most of the time. They activate when necessary, for only as long as necessary.

Lt. Col. Andrew D’Ambrogi, commander of VMFA-211, a U.S. Marine Corps F-35 squadron in Yuma, Arizona, said the Norwegians are even better than the Marines are at rapid airfield setup. “I don’t think we need to be as extreme as Norway, the way they set up tactical mission sets,” D’Ambrogi said.

The Norwegian air force operates from seven major air bases. There were two fighter bases, Orland plus Bodo farther north, until the F-35 began replacing old F-16s and drove a consolidation of flight ops. Bodo has lost its fighters and now permanently supports only rescue helicopters.

But a pair of F-35s routinely stages at Eveness, north of the Arctic Circle, for quick-reaction-alert patrols. And there are 58 smaller bases and civilian airports with concrete runways that are long enough to land and launch fighters. Another 47 dirt airstrips might be useful to transport and helicopter squadrons.

Norwegian law gives the military the power to “lead air-operative reinforcements through the national air space.” The same law requires the armed services to be capable of “assum[ing] national control of the air space in a sector within a limited time-frame.”

Some of the small bases that would be most useful in a crisis also are the most vulnerable. Banak, a civilian airport that normally hosts no more than a few rescue helicopters, lies just 120 miles from the Russian border.

During one exercise in March 2021, Norwegian army troops—including local “home guard” reservists—mobilized on short notice to secure Banak against a simulated invasion force. “We were having breakfast when the alarm went off and we had to pack everything up,” one young reservist told Defense One.

The Americans aspire to react that quickly.

Follow me on TwitterCheck out my website or some of my other work hereSend me a secure tip


Speak Your Mind

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Get in Touch

350FansLike
100FollowersFollow
281FollowersFollow
150FollowersFollow

Recommend for You

Oh hi there 👋
It’s nice to meet you.

Subscribe and receive our weekly newsletter packed with awesome articles that really matters to you!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

You might also like

Students At Mouratoglou Tennis Academy ‘Safe At Home’ With...

The Mouratoglou Academy in the south of France (Photo:...

What Would A ‘Divest Global Shipping’ Campaign Look Like...

The successful global campaign on divestment from companies that support the fossil fuel industry....