Norway softens self-imposed restrictions on allied surveillance aircraft monitoring Russia's nuclear fleet

The skies inside the Arctic Circle have been busy this week. On 18 August, several military operations took place simultaneously. While not all aircraft were visible to civilian tracking services, some flew with their transponders switched on, allowing their movements to be followed on services such as Flightradar24.

One of the visible aircraft was an Airbus A330 MRTT (Multi Role Tanker Transport), used by NATO for air-to-air refuelling. The aircraft flew north over Norway from Cologne, Germany, before circling over Hammerfest in western Finnmark.

"We had normal training with F-35 fighter jets. That included aerial refuelling," said Vice Admiral Rune Andersen, Chief of the Norwegian Joint Headquarters (NJHQ).

"The Rivet Joint was part of the training that took place over Finnmark," Andersen confirmed in a telephone interview with the Barents Observer.

A Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint is a large reconnaissance aircraft used to gather real-time electronic intelligence, track signals and monitor communications networks.

The aircraft is normally based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, the main operating base for British airborne intelligence aircraft and systems. However, the aircraft operating on 18 August did not come from England. Instead, it took off from Ørland Air Base in Norway.

It is not the first time allied surveillance aircraft have operated from Norwegian airports. However, this flight was highly unusual, following a route the Barents Observer had not previously observed by allied intelligence gathering planes flying out of airports in Norway. North of Finnmark, the RC-135W continued through international airspace far to the east of Murmansk — waters of strategic importance to Russia's nuclear submarine fleet.

The self-imposed restrictions Norway has maintained since the Cold War included limitations on NATO surveillance missions north of the Kola Peninsula, effectively preventing such flights from operating from Norwegian airports.

The British reconnaissance aircraft was not the only British military aircraft heading east towards international airspace over the Russian sector of the Barents Sea on 18 August. A P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft — often referred to as a submarine hunter — entered the area north of the Kola Peninsula shortly after a similar Norwegian aircraft had left.

Like its Norwegian counterpart, the British P-8 Poseidon operated from Evenes Air Base near Harstad in northern Norway.

Until now, British and US Poseidons have generally operated from Keflavík in Iceland or RAF Lossiemouth in north-east Scotland when flying missions north of Russia's Kola Peninsula.

"This is nothing special. P-8 Poseidons regularly fly over the Barents Sea," Andersen said.

The Barents Observer, however, had not previously observed British maritime patrol aircraft flying missions east of the Varanger Fjord directly from an airport in Norway.

"Norwegian policy is still to take our Russian neighbours into consideration. We have nothing other than a defensive policy," Andersen underlined. "All such flights are cleared before they take place."

The Chief of the Norwegian Joint Headquarters said the air force training this week had been planned in advance and that no unusual activity had been observed from the Russian military in the north.

Russia's Sevmash shipyard is currently working with the Northern Fleet to test two brand-new submarines of considerable interest to NATO: the Yasen-M-class Perm, which is capable of carrying the hypersonic Tsirkon missile, and the Khabarovsk, a special-purpose submarine intended to carry six nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed Poseidon torpedoes.

In the telephone interview, Andersen said that the air force activity around Finnmark was not connected to NATO's unusually large and diverse deployment of air assets around Kaliningrad in the Baltic region, which took place simultaneously on 18 August and was reported by Defence24.com.

On Thursday, 20 August, air force activity continued over Finnmark.

A pair of F-35 fighter jets from Evenes Air Base flew over Alta and Porsanger, the newspaper iFinnmark reported. From the Barents Observer's office in Kirkenes, the contrail of a Norwegian P-8 Poseidon returning from a mission outside the Kola Peninsula was visible in the afternoon sky.

Norwegian submarine-hunting aircraft usually fly without their transponders switched on when patrolling international airspace outside Russia. This contrasts with similar British and US Navy surveillance aircraft, which are often visible on Flightradar24 during missions outside Russian airspace.

It was Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, and its increasingly hostile stance towards Europe, that prompted Norway to begin easing its self-imposed restrictions on NATO training and operations.

When announcing changes to the restrictions last year, Minister of Defence Tore O. Sandvik said: "We remain a predictable and responsible neighbour, committed to preserving stability and low tension in the High North."

The Ministry of Defence, however, has been careful not to highlight the individual changes as they take place.

"We are working on that now. More information will come soon," State Secretary Marte Gerhardsen told the Barents Observer last spring.

Since then, no official press releases on the matter have followed. The changes, however, are visible in open sources such as Flightradar24.