Norwegian F-35s scrambled to meet two Russian bombers in late April 2026 as the planes operated near NATO airspace. One bomber was carrying a cruise missile under its wing. Two Su-30SM Russian fighter jets shadowed the Tu-95MS bombers as they flew over northern Norway on April 30, reported the Barents Observer, a Norwegian newspaper.
The cruise missile was identified as a Kh-101, commonly used in attacks against Ukraine, the newspaper reported May 8. “There may be a training element involved, but this is probably first and foremost signaling,” Lars Peder Haga, associate professor at Norway’s Air Force Academy, told the newspaper.
Russian bombers carrying cruise missiles near Norwegian territory have become more common since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly vowed retaliation against Norway and other NATO members for their support of Ukraine. Putin’s threats have been especially blunt in his threats to the alliance’s Baltic and Nordic members defending NATO’s northern flank, and they’ve been increasingly accompanied by gray-zone military tactics like sabotage, NATO officials say.
The Russian strategic bombers took off from the Olenya air base on the Kola Peninsula and headed west over the Barents Sea. A video published by the Russian Ministry of Defence shows a Kh-101 cruise missile mounted on one of the underwing pylons, the newspaper reported.
The Norwegian Air Force quickly responded. “Two Norwegian F-35s on NATO Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) readiness from Evenes Air Station identified two Russian Tu-95MS BEAR H bombers and two Su-30SM FLANKER H fighter aircraft in international airspace over the Barents Sea,” said spokesman Maj. Stian Roen, according to the newspaper. “We can also confirm that the aircraft you are referring to were carrying weapons.”
A subsonic cruise missile with a range of about 3,500 kilometers, the Kh-101 is Russia’s most used air-launched cruise missile in its war against Ukraine, including a July 2024 attack on a Kyiv hospital that killed two adults and wounded at least 16. Seven of the wounded were children being treated at Okhmatdyt Hospital, the country’s largest children’s hospital, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres, a French non-governmental organization.
Norwegian fighter jets based at Evenes Air Base near Bodø met the Russian warplanes. Oslo plays a key role in monitoring Moscow’s military moves in the High North. Evenes, the largest base in the country’s High North, is the hub of that effort. “We do this, among other things, to maintain an overview of flight frequency and patterns, and to retain control of air traffic,” Roen said. “The F-35 aircraft document all QRA missions they are scrambled for, and they monitor the equipment and capabilities carried by aircraft, reporting back to CAOC [Combined Air Operations Centre] and NATO after the mission is completed.”
NATO’s QRA squadron, based in Evenes, also hosts P-3 maritime surveillance aircraft and five new Poseidon warplanes, the successor to the P-3. Those planes are essential for monitoring Russian and Chinese Communist Party activity in the Arctic. The Norwegian Air Force has based F-35s at Evenes since 2021 and the Poseidons since 2023. In 2026, the Air Force announced it also was basing counter-unmanned aerial systems defense at the air base.
A Russian Ministry of Defense statement noted that the bombers flew over both the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea. The Norwegian Air Force has not disclosed how far south along the Norwegian coast the Russian aircraft traveled, the newspaper reported.
The Tu-95MS aircraft also conducted in-flight refueling from an Ilyushin Il-78M tanker during the mission. The flight, from takeoff until landing back at Olenya air base, lasted for more than seven hours, according to the ministry. While a cruise-missile equipped Russian bomber is no longer an unknown sight near Norwegian skies, the presence of the two Su-30SM fighters in the April 30 sortie was a first, Haga told the newspaper.
“There are no VKS Su-30SM/Flanker-H permanently stationed on the Kola Peninsula. To my knowledge, this is the first time that fighters other than the Russkiye Vityazi, from outside the Kola region have provided escort for a strategic aviation flight over the Barents and Norwegian seas,” Haga said.