A United States aircraft carrier group trained with NATO forces for several weeks in August and September 2025, highlighting a continued effort to integrate tactics, lines of communication and improve joint capabilities in the Arctic. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest U.S. aircraft carrier, accompanied by destroyers and a guided-missile destroyer, trained with Norwegian naval and air forces in Norwegian waters.
The multiweek exercise marked the third consecutive year that a U.S. aircraft carrier group has deployed to the region. “What we’re doing is a building block on the last years of our U.S. Carrier Strike Groups’ work off the coast of Norway and in the High North seas with the Royal Norwegian Navy,” said Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilotta, commander of Carrier Strike Group 12, according to the High North News, a Norwegian newspaper. “This consistent teamwork has fostered a strong and enduring relationship between our two navies. Our mutual understanding of each other’s naval priorities, perspectives, and methods ensures efficient and effective work whenever we operate together.”
This year, the carrier group split into two wings across northern Norway, a strategic gateway to the Arctic. The Gerald R. Ford, along with the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, operated in the Norwegian Sea off Nordland, participating in training exercises with the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
Warplanes from the aircraft carrier also trained with the Norwegian Army near Tromsø. Meanwhile, the Royal Norwegian Navy frigate Thor Heyerdahl and two U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, the USS Mahan and USS Bainbridge, sailed in the Barents Sea accompanied by a Norwegian naval supply ship and Royal Norwegian Air Force F-35s and a Poseidon P-8. The drills were meant to simulate defense of key maritime approaches to the Arctic, including the shallow Barents Sea, used by Russian submarines from the Northern Fleet’s base on the nearby Kola Peninsula on their way to deeper waters.
Vice Adm. Rune Andersen, chief of the Norwegian military’s joint headquarters, said a well-oiled integration of Norwegian and U.S. military forces is crucial for Norway’s defense. “The NATO alliance and the U.S. are the core of our national defense. Norway and the Armed Forces’ ability to receive allies is crucial to the defense of Norway and the Nordic region. If we are to function well together in a possible crisis or war, it is imperative that we exercise together in times of peace,” Andersen told the newspaper.
The 2025 carrier group visit was the third by the U.S. in as many years. In 2023, the Gerald R. Ford made its initial visit to the region, participating in exercises with the United Kingdom and Norwegian forces in which British naval ships formed a “ring of steel” around the U.S. carrier, and the militaries practiced defending against aerial assaults. In 2024, the USS Harry S. Truman deployed to the northern coast of Norway to train with Norwegian and Italian naval assets. U.S. F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters operated jointly with Norwegian F-35 fighters from Ørland Air Station in the Nordic country’s High North.