“For Norway, the F-35 is not an air force capability in itself. It’s a more strategic, important, new capability for the joint force of Norway, for the defense of Norway and [for] our possibility to be the NATO in the north, providing our part of the deterrence threshold,” Skinnarland said.
“The performance of the aircraft — in general and in Norwegian conditions specifically — is more than expected. It’s an incredible capability. It performs extremely well in cold weather and the sensor capability and fusion is remarkable also when it comes to our challenging environment with the geography, topography and distance,” she said
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Norway has already amassed 15 F-35s at Ørland, as well as the trained pilots and technicians it needs for IOC. The deployment, where F-35 operators will rely on containerized versions of F-35 support systems
like the Autonomic Information Logistics System, is the last requirement needed for the milestone, Skinnarland said. “We need to verify that this works.”