EVENES, Norway — Norwegian F-35s intercepted Russian intelligence-gathering aircraft two days in a row during an ongoing NATO military exercise here.
On March 11 at 9:30 am, the deep and distinctive rumble of two Norwegian fighter jets echoed across the silent, mountainous terrain here in northern Norway, where NATO forces are currently conducting part of the biennial Cold Response 2026 exercise.
Seconds later, two F-35s from the Norwegian Air Force darted off from Evenes Air Station to monitor a Russian Ilyushin Il-20M aircraft detected along the Norwegian coast. The military plane, which Moscow primarily uses for surveillance and reconnaissance missions, flew with its transponder switched off, according to the Norwegian Armed Forces.
A statement from the Forsvaret, Norways armed forces, described the event as “routine and expected” during large-scale military exercises.
“They identified and shadowed the aircraft along the Norwegian coast before it turned northwards off Vesteralen – the [Russian] plane then flew south twice more, reaching as far as Lofoten, before returning to the Kola Peninsula around 1:30 pm,” the statement said.
It was the second instance in as many days in which Russian aircraft were detected and identified as operating in international airspace off Finnmark, Norway’s northernmost region that straddles the Barents and Norwegian seas.
On March 10, two F-35s were deployed for the same mission. That time, the Russian Ilyushin Il-20M was reported to have headed north of Sørøya and then returned to the Kola Peninsula.
During a media briefing, Col. Hans Martin Steiro, the Norwegian air wing and base commander at Evenes, explained that in quick-reaction alert (QRA) missions, an alarm sounds when a non-allied aircraft is detected, and fighter crews have 15 minutes to be airborne.
Norwegian pilots have flown an average of 38 QRA missions aimed at unidentified Russian planes per year since 2022, according to a military briefing to reporters.
Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.
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