To better cope with threats emanating from Russia, the countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have created a unified Nordic air defense alliance, pooling the resources of their air forces. They have upwards of 300 fighter jets between them as well as training, transport and surveillance fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
Those four nations on Friday announced they signed the first Nordic Air Commanders’ Intent last week during a meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
“The declaration of intent strengthens Nordic cooperation and paves the way for further strengthening of the Nordic air forces,” the four nations said Friday in a joint statement. “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.”
integrated command and control, operational planning and execution
flexible and resilient deployment of our air forces
joint airspace surveillance
joint education, training and exercises.
The publicly released plan does not provide specific timelines for achieving any of the goals. However, a separate jointly released document gives an overview.
Finnish Air Force F-18 Hornet. (Finnish Air Force photo)
“In the medium term, efforts shall revolve around preparing for, conducting, and assessing Nordic Response 24 from an air perspective, putting emphasis on the Nordic digital and semi-distributed [Air Operations Center] AOC development steps,” according to that document. “On the horizon, long-term permanent solutions to fulfill this intent’s aim shall be determined and established.”
While none of the documents mention Russia, the move to integrate the air forces was triggered by Moscow’s full-on invasion of Ukraine, the commander of the Danish Air Force, Major General Jan Dam, told Reuters.
“Our combined fleet can be compared to a large European country,” Dam said.
Finland has more than 60 Hornets. (Finnish Air Force photo)
Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen on Thursday expressed his opposition to a request by Ukraine for a portion of his country’s Hornet fleet.
“My view as Finland’s defense minister is that we need these Hornets to secure our own country,” Kaikkonen told a news conference in Helsinki, as reported by Reuters. “I view negatively the idea that they would be donated during the next few years. And if we look even further, my understanding is that they begin to be worn out and will have little use value left, he added.”
Denmark has 58 F-16s and 27 F-35s on order, according to Reuters.
Danish F-16 taxiing ready for a training mission alongside Allies in the Baltic Sea region, helping improve tactics and readiness. (Danish Air Force photo).
Sweden has around 70 JAS-39C/D Gripen jets and will be converting over to the enhanced Gipen-E in the coming years.
Swedish JAS-38 Gripen jets. (Swedish Air Force photo)
How soon this gets off the ground and exactly how it will works remains to be seen. And while all four nations have agreed to work within NATO frameworks, Finland and Sweden have yet to gain membership.
