Lockheed Martin donated the last 3 multitasking F-35A aircraft with 52 machines ordered by the Royal Norwegian Air Force (Luftforsvaret). “The F-35 makes it possible to defend sovereignty and keep even better control of our areas on land, sea and air,” commented Tore O. Sandvik, Norwegian defence minister.
Norwegian “efs” over Poland
Two of the 3 machines left for Fort Worth, Texas, and flew to Norway, where they await reception attempts. The 3rd aircraft will stay in the United States for a while, and will be utilized to test the integration of the JSM anti-ship rocket produced by Norwegian Kongsberg. Technically it is already a Luftforsvaret machine, which means that Norway is the first of 20 recipient countries F-35which received all the aircraft ordered. The symbolic completion of the acquisition and implementation process of the service is expected to take place during a ceremony scheduled for the end of April. It will take place at the base in Ørland.
Let us callback that the Oslo authorities decided to acquisition F-35 fighters inactive in 2008. The first copies were taken in 2015 – these were machines that were then utilized to train Norwegian pilots and mechanics in the US. The first deliveries to Norway took place in 2017. The Norwegian "thirty-fives" are stationed at Ørland Air Base, as well as at Evenes Air Station – in the north of the country, close to the border with Russia. The Norwegians usage them for the NATO Air Police mission, besides in the Baltic Sea and Arctic region. Several royal F-35s were sent to Polandto defend the airport in Jasionka close Rzeszów.
Global fleet with Polish participation
In a communication in which Lockheed Martin reported the completion of deliveries to Norway, Chauncey McIntosh, vice president and CEO of the F-35 program, noted that jets of this kind worldwide had already reached over a million hours of flight. "The global fleet already has over 1,100 machines, and the F-35 operate from 48 bases worldwide," we read. The largest user of “efs” is the United States, which plans to acquisition a full of 2.5 1000 machines. The second largest recipient will be Japan, with a mark fleet of 147 aircraft. 138 machines are going to buy the United Kingdom, including Italy, Australia, Netherlands, Denmark, South Korea, Israel, Finland, Germany and Poland.
Purchase agreement F-35 fighters for the Polish Army, the sum of $4.6 billion, was signed in January 2020. The contract provides that the Americans will supply 32 aircraft and, among others, a logistics package and an IT management strategy for aircraft operation. They will besides supply training in US centres of 24 pilots from Poland and about 90 people technical personnel. In addition, the contract includes the modernisation of machinery during their usage by the Polish Air Force. The first F-35 is due to arrive in our country in 2026. They'll be stationed in 32 Tactical Aviation Base in Grace and 21st Tactical Air Base in Swidwin. transportation will last until 2030. Last August in distant Worth presented first Polish F-35.
‘Efs’ for ‘efs’
The F-35 is presently the primary Luftforsvaret fighter aircraft. Earlier, for more than 40 years, F-16 had played this role. A decade ago, about 60 "sixteens" remained in the ministry, and the process of withdrawing them began with the introduction of the first F-35A in 2017. The last Norwegian F-16 operational work ended on January 6, 2022. In 2023 Norway signed a contract to sale 32 utilized F-16AM/BM to Romania. The aircraft were previously upgraded to the MLU (Mid-Life Update) standard. The agreement was worth about EUR 388 million and included spare parts, training and logistical support. transportation began in 2024. Norwegian "efs" joined another F-16 platform utilized machines, which Romania had previously purchased in Portugal.
In August 2023 Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced that Norway will supply Ukraine with "a certain F-16 number". On 19 March that year, president Volodymyr Zelenski announced that a fresh F-16 fighter organization had arrived in Ukraine from “one of the Western European countries”. Zelenski reported that it was about respective machines, but did not uncover their exact number and place of origin. According to any commentators, these could have been Norwegian machines. At the moment, however, there is no authoritative confirmation of these speculations.
