At a press conference in Kyiv today, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre confirmed that his country would deliver between 5 and 10 F-16s to Ukraine. He said:
“Ukraine wants to build up an air force. They want capacity in the air, and that is understandable. It is reasonable for a country that wants to protect itself to want that… Norway does not have that many planes because we have sold almost all we had to our ally Romania. We aim to donate some of the few aircraft we have left.”
This announcement came after days of speculation over the small Norwegian F-16 fleet after the United States cleared the donation of dozens of Danish and Dutch F-16s earlier this week.
On 3 November 2017, the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF)took delivery of the first F-35A Lightning II.
On 2 December 2021, RNoAF announced that twelve F-16As have been sold to Draken International. Transfer of the F-16As is expected to happen in 2022, pending formal approval by the US and Norwegian governments. In December 2021, Romania expressed their interest to purchase the rest of 32 F-16As.
On 6 January 2022, the F-35 officially took over the Quick Reaction Alert mission, ending the F-16 fleet’s 42 year-long mission. (Wiki)
