The Army and Navy air arms resisted the German invasion with a handful of modern aircraft, then evacuated to Britain.

Norway went to war in April 1940 with two small air arms that had been starved of money for years. When the Germans landed on 9 April, the Army’s fighter flight, Jagevingen, had seven combat-ready Gloster Gladiators at Fornebu, the airport outside Oslo; the more modern Curtiss Hawk fighters ordered from the United States had arrived but were still crated or lacked their weapons. The Gladiator pilots took off into a German air armada many times their number and fought until their ammunition ran out, then flew to whatever secondary fields they could find. Their success is disputed: Norwegian accounts credit them with several aircraft, up to five in some tellings, while the English-language campaign history records only a single Junkers Ju 52 lost at Fornebu. The campaign in the north, around Narvik, lasted until 10 June 1940. Some aircraft and their crews escaped to Britain, and the Army flying school’s tradition — 362 pilots trained by 1940 — carried on in exile under Ole Reistad at Little Norway.

Resultado Norway capitulated on 10 June 1940; surviving aircrew escaped to Britain and later to Canada.

Claims against German records are contested; the range given is from one to five German aircraft destroyed by the Gladiators on 9 April.

Voando para

Força Aérea Real Norueguesa

Onde

Southern and northern Norway

Ao lado de

United Kingdom, France and Poland

Contra

Alemanha

Aeronave

Gloster Gladiador

Missões

—Não foi publicado como um dado consolidado.

Perdas

Não publicadoUNVERIFIED. No consolidated Norwegian loss figure was found in the sources checked.

Fontes

Store norske leksikon · Wikipédia · Wikipédia

Two Norwegian Spitfire squadrons flew in the RAF from bases in Scotland and England, including sweeps and escorts over occupied Europe.

The Norwegian fighter squadrons were built from airmen who had escaped from occupied Norway, many of them trained at Little Norway in Canada. 331 Squadron formed at RAF Catterick on 21 July 1941 and 332 Squadron at Catterick on 16 January 1942, becoming operational on 21 March. 331 Squadron served first in the far north of Scotland and Orkney, at Castletown and Skeabrae, before both squadrons moved south to North Weald and flew Spitfires over France and the Low Countries; later bases included Manston, Tangmere and Ford. Together they were credited with 180 enemy aircraft destroyed, 35 probables and more than 100 damaged, for the loss of 131 aircraft and 71 pilots killed. 331 Squadron is often described as the highest-scoring fighter squadron in the south of England. Both squadrons came home in 1945 — 332 to Værnes in September — and both still exist, flying the F-35 at Ørland.

Resultado Credited together with 180 enemy aircraft destroyed, 35 probables and more than 100 damaged.

Victory totals are wartime credits.

Voando para

Força Aérea Real Norueguesa

Onde

Britain, northern France, the Low Countries and Germany

Ao lado de

Reino Unido

Contra

Alemanha

Aeronave

Supermarine Spitfire

Missões

—Not found as a consolidated figure.

Perdas

131 aircraft · 71 killed131 aircraft lost and 71 pilots killed, the two squadrons together.

Fontes

Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Store norske leksikon · Wikipédia

Two Norwegian squadrons flew anti-submarine patrols, convoy cover, shipping reconnaissance and special operations to occupied Norway.

330 Squadron was formed on Iceland on 25 April 1941 as an RAF squadron manned by Norwegians. It received Northrop N-3PB floatplanes — 24 had been ordered by the government in exile — in May 1941 and flew its first operational sortie on 23 June 1941, patrolling the waters around Iceland. In December 1942 it began converting to Short Sunderland flying boats and was operational on them from 17 April 1943. 333 Squadron grew from a detachment formed on 8 February 1942 and became a squadron on 10 May 1943. Its Catalina flight flew shipping reconnaissance along the Norwegian coast, anti-submarine patrols north of Scotland and special duties — landing agents, carrying people and dropping supplies to points on the occupied coast — while its Mosquito flight at Leuchars flew fast reconnaissance along the same coast. After 1945 333 Squadron’s B flight became 334 Squadron, and 333 carried the maritime patrol mission on through the Cold War.

Resultado Both squadrons survived the war; 330 is the rescue helicopter squadron today and 333 flies the P-8 Poseidon.

Unit strengths and U-boat claims are not given in the sources checked.

Voando para

Força Aérea Real Norueguesa

Onde

Iceland, the North Atlantic, northern Scotland and the Norwegian coast

Ao lado de

Reino Unido

Contra

Alemanha

Aeronave

Northrop N-3PB, Short Sunderland, Consolidated Catalina, de Havilland Mosquito

Missões

—Not found as a consolidated figure.

Perdas

Não publicadoUNVERIFIED. Loss figures for the two squadrons were not found in the sources checked.

Fontes

Store norske leksikon · Wikipédia · Wikipédia · Store norske leksikon · Store norske leksikon

Norwegian fighters and patrol aircraft watched NATO’s only border with the Soviet Union, intercepting Soviet aircraft and tracking the Northern Fleet.

Norway joined NATO as a founding member in 1949 and became the alliance’s northern sentinel: it shared a land border with the Soviet Union, and the Kola peninsula held the Northern Fleet. From 1951 American military aid paid for jets and for new bases at Bodø, Andøya, Rygge and elsewhere. Bodø became the main northern fighter base, and Andøya, the permanent home from January 1963 of 333 Squadron’s maritime patrol aircraft — Catalinas, then Albatross amphibians and from 1969 the P-3 Orion — flew maritime patrols over the Norwegian and Barents Seas. The fighters, from the F-86K to the F-104 and the F-16, intercepted Soviet bombers and patrol aircraft over the Norwegian Sea on a scale Wikipedia puts at 500 to 600 a year. The alliance brought its own risks. On 1 May 1960 the U-2 flown by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union; on 7 May Khrushchev announced that its planned landing point had been Bodø airfield, putting Norway at the centre of the crisis. The watch did not end with the Cold War: Russian aircraft still approach Norwegian airspace, and two F-35s have held the alert at Evenes, airborne within 15 minutes, since January 2022.

Resultado No shots were fired; the watch passed to the F-35 at Evenes in 2022.

Interception totals are not published officially in the sources checked; treat the 500–600 a year as an order of magnitude.

Voando para

Força Aérea Real Norueguesa

Onde

Norwegian Sea, Barents Sea and northern Norway

Ao lado de

United States and NATO

Contra

Soviet Union (confrontation, not war)

Aeronave

F-86K, F-104G, CF-104, F-16, P-3 Orion

Missões

—About 500–600 interceptions of Soviet aircraft a year are reported by the English-language Wikipedia article, citing a 2004 address by the Air Force chief; the primary text could not be retrieved.

Perdas

Não publicadoNo combat losses. Peacetime accidents are not totalled here.

Fontes

Foreign Relations of the United States 1958–1960, vo · Wikipédia · Store norske leksikon · Wikipédia · Store norske leksikon · Teknisk Ukeblad · Forsvaret

Norwegian F-16s took part in NATO’s air campaign — the first Norwegian combat operation since the Second World War.

The 1999 air campaign against Yugoslavia was the first time since 1945 that the Royal Norwegian Air Force went to war, and it did so as one of the European F-16 users alongside Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal and Turkey. Norwegian F-16s flew as part of the NATO force during the campaign, which ran from March to June 1999; according to Store norske leksikon it was the service’s first combat operation since the Second World War. Norway’s contribution in the air was modest, and the details — number of aircraft, base and hours flown — are published mainly in secondary sources that could not be retrieved for this page, so they are left out rather than guessed. The better-known Norwegian contribution came on the ground: soldiers of the Forsvarets Spesialkommando were among the first NATO troops into Pristina on 12 June 1999, and were the first to meet the Russian troops at the airport. For the air force the operation marked the start of a new pattern of expeditionary deployments with the F-16 that ran through Afghanistan to Libya.

Resultado Yugoslav forces withdrew from Kosovo in June 1999.

Norwegian aircraft numbers, base and sortie counts for 1999 are UNVERIFIED in this run.

Voando para

Força Aérea Real Norueguesa

Onde

República Federal da Iugoslávia

Ao lado de

OTAN

Contra

República Federal da Iugoslávia

Aeronave

F-16A MLU

Missões

—UNVERIFIED. Norwegian sortie and hour totals were not found in a retrievable source.

Perdas

0 aeronaves · 0 mortosNo Norwegian aircraft were lost.

Fontes

Store norske leksikon · Wikipédia

Norwegian F-16s flew in support of coalition operations in Afghanistan.

After the attacks of 11 September 2001 Norway sent F-16s to the war in Afghanistan, flying there between 2002 and 2006 according to Store norske leksikon. It was the air force’s second combat deployment in three years and the first so far from home, testing the MLU-upgraded F-16s, the service’s logistics at the end of a very long supply line. The detailed record — bases, rotations, sorties and weapons released — is held in Norwegian official reports that could not be retrieved in this run, so the numbers are left out here rather than taken from memory. The lessons were applied five years later over Libya, when the same aircraft, and many of the same people, flew one of the most intensive strike campaigns of any small NATO air force.

Resultado Norwegian fighters left Afghanistan in 2006; the war continued until 2021.

Base, dates of individual rotations and sortie counts are UNVERIFIED in this run.

Voando para

Força Aérea Real Norueguesa

Onde

Afeganistão

Ao lado de

United States and NATO

Contra

Talibã e Al-Qaeda

Aeronave

F-16AM

Missões

—UNVERIFIED. Sortie totals were not found in a retrievable source.

Perdas

0 aeronaves · 0 mortosNo Norwegian F-16s were lost.

Fontes

Store norske leksikon

Six Norwegian F-16s from Souda Bay, Crete, flew strike and armed reconnaissance missions to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1973.

Norway committed six F-16AM fighters and their ground crews to the Libya operation in March 2011, based at Souda Bay on Crete. On 24 March they were placed under the American-led Operation Odyssey Dawn, and from 31 March they flew under NATO’s Operation Unified Protector. About three quarters of their missions were strike coordination and armed reconnaissance: hunting targets over a wide area rather than striking pre-planned ones. On the night of 25 April two Norwegian F-16s bombed Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli. The detachment was cut from six to four jets on 24 June, and Norway stopped flying at the end of July. The bomb count depends on the source and the period: Store norske leksikon gives 583 sorties and 569 laser- and GPS-guided bombs; figures cited in Wikipedia give 588 bombs on 615 NATO missions to 1 August, plus 19 bombs on 32 missions under Odyssey Dawn. Either way, a small force dropped a large share of the alliance’s bombs — Wikipedia reports about 17 per cent by July — and Norwegian and Danish jets were reported to have hit the most targets in proportion to their numbers.

Resultado Norway ended its participation at the end of July 2011; the Gaddafi government fell later that year.

Bomb totals range from 569 to 588 (607 if the Odyssey Dawn weapons are added) because the sources count different periods; the share of NATO bombs is a mid-operation figure.

Voando para

Força Aérea Real Norueguesa

Onde

Líbia

Ao lado de

NATO, United States, United Kingdom, France and Denmark

Contra

Gaddafi government forces

Aeronave

F-16AM

Missões

615Counts differ: 615 of NATO’s 6,493 missions between 31 March and 1 August, plus 32 under Odyssey Dawn (Wikipedia, citing Norwegian reporting); Store norske leksikon gives 583 sorties.

Perdas

0 aeronaves · 0 mortosNo Norwegian aircraft or aircrew were lost.

Fontes

Wikipédia · Store norske leksikon · Wikipédia

Norway takes turns with its allies to guard Icelandic and Baltic airspace, most recently with F-35s.

Iceland has no air force, so since 2008 NATO allies have taken turns to deploy fighters to Keflavík, usually three times a year for three to four weeks at a time. Norway has made eight such deployments. The early ones used the F-16; in 2020 the Iceland mission was the Norwegian F-35’s first operational deployment abroad, and Norway returned in 2021, 2023 and in January and February 2024, when four F-35s were sent and two held the alert around the clock. Norwegian F-16s also flew NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission from Lithuania in 2015. These deployments are not combat, but they are the air force’s most frequent operations abroad, and they carry the same quick reaction alert discipline — two jets ready at short notice — that the F-35 detachment keeps at Evenes to meet Russian aircraft approaching Norwegian airspace. They also show the alliance the F-35 working away from home, which the air force considers an important part of its deterrent value in the north.

Resultado Eight Norwegian rotations to Iceland by 2024, with the F-35 since 2020.

Rotation dates other than those given by Forsvaret are not listed.

Voando para

Força Aérea Real Norueguesa

Onde

Iceland and Lithuania

Ao lado de

OTAN

Contra

—

Aeronave

F-16AM, F-35A

Missões

—Not applicable; peacetime quick reaction alert.

Perdas

0 aeronaves · 0 mortosNo losses.

Fontes

Forsvaret · Forsvaret