NATO Ally Responds to US Air Force’s Close Brush With Russian Jets

The arrival of U.S. Air Force strategic bombers in Romania for the first time, which prompted Russia’s military to scramble fighter jets on Sunday, passed through Norwegian airspace, Oslo’s armed forces have confirmed.

Moscow’s defense ministry said two of its fighter jets scrambled to intercept two U.S. B-52H bombers over the Barents Sea in the early hours of Sunday. The Barents Sea sits north of Norway and northwestern Russia.

“As the Russian fighters approached, the U.S. strategic bombers turned away from the State Border of the Russian Federation,” Moscow said in a statement.

The U.S. Air Force branch based in Europe and Africa said on Monday that two U.S. B-52 aircraft were intercepted by two Russian aircraft, but the B-52s “did not change course due to the intercept and continued along their scheduled flight plan without incident.”

The B-52 aircraft were arriving from the U.S. to be stationed at an air base in Romania, marking the first time U.S. strategic bombers have operated from the country, the U.S. military said. The base sits close to the Black Sea coast, where Ukraine is battling Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

“We were informed but not directly involved in this US flight, beyond the fact that it flew in Norwegian airspace,” Hanne Olafsen, spokesperson for the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, told Newsweek.

“Monitoring and control of Norwegian airspace is carried out by the Norwegian Armed Forces,” Olafsen added in a statement. No Norwegian airports or aircraft were impacted by the U.S. B-52Hs, they said.

Henrik Omtvedt Jenssen, another spokesperson for the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, told The Barents Observer that the jets “were transiting Norwegian airspace and continued into Finland.”

Finnish Defense Minister, Antti Häkkänen, said in a post to X on Sunday that Helsinki had “implemented cooperation with the strategic bombers of the United States in the territory of Finland.”

Häkkänen described this as “normal” activity taking place in a NATO member country and a “demonstration of the basic pillar of common defense, deterrence and defense.” Finland’s military said in a separate statement that the two B-52 bombers flew in Finnish airspace as part of “training activities,” moving from Norway, across Lapland and then headed south. They were accompanied by three refueling aircraft, the Finnish armed forces added.

U.S. military activity has not increased recently, Olafsen said, but it has grown in “the northern areas” since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Norway carries out joint training with U.S. forces as part of the “Bomber Task Force,” the spokesperson said. “This joint training gives us the opportunity to further develop and strengthen a common approach to deterrence and security for the region.”

Russia occasionally reports scrambling jets to intercept aircraft belonging to NATO countries approaching its airspace. Earlier this month, Moscow said its airspace control systems covering the Barents Sea had detected a Norwegian Air Force P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft heading for its border on July 10. Russia scrambled a MiG-31 fighter jet, and the Poseidon “turned away” from Russian airspace, the defense ministry said at the time.

In March, Moscow said that one of its MiG-31 fighter jets had been scrambled to intercept two U.S. Air Force B-1B strategic bombers over the Barents Sea. In September 2023, Russia said a MiG-31 had met a U.S. Navy P-8A approaching its airspace in the same area.

NATO countries also scramble jets when the alliance’s members detect Russian aircraft approaching their airspace.