[Note: this article was written in Nynorsk (I write in Bokmål) and appears to contain several small typos; I have therefore taken some minor liberties here and there, also in cases where literal translations or copying the formatting wholesale doesn’t sound right.]

Ukraine’s F-16 fighter planes were recently restricted by the Trump regime. An aviation expert believes Norway’s fighter jets are completely dependent on the USA.

—“We are completely dependent on the USA when it comes to these planes,” says Lars Peder Haga of the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy [Luftkrigsskolen]

He explains that the F-35s cannot operate for more than a few weeks without the USA’s consent. This is not music to the ears of those unsure of Trump’s willingness to protect Europe.

—“The Trump regime didn’t hesitate to shut off support to Ukraine to pressure them. The other parties in the Storting need to wake up. We cannot have these types of vulnerabilities in our nation’s defense,” says Ingrid Fiskaa (Socialist Left) of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense in the Norwegian parliament, the Storting.

With several countries putting their purchases of F-35s on hold, a parliamentary hearing on the planes has been scheduled. They have already been criticized strongly by the Office of the Auditor General.

Stopped purchases

There was much conflict when Norway was going to buy new fighter planes in 2008. Many were skeptical to the USA and wanted Eurofighters from the EU or the Swedish JAS Gripen. The American F-35 won out in the end, however, and Norway ordered 52 of these planes, which each run on millions of lines of computer code; these planes have costed us a total of 400 billion NOK [=38 billion USD] according to the national budget for 2025, making them the biggest investment on Norwegian soil in history.

Last week, Portugal abruptly stopped purchases of new F-35s, which were set to replace their F-16s.

—“The world has already changed. There was an election in the USA, and it’s in that context that NATO and the world stands,” said Portuguese Minister of Defense Nuno Melo to Público.

Last Sunday it was reported that Canada will also reconsider its purchase of 88 F-35s, whereas Israel has meanwhile signed a bespoke agreement.

The United Arab Emirates canceled the purchase of 50 similar planes in 2021, stating, among other reasons, that they could not fully control their own planes.

Dependent on the USA

Lately it has been speculated particularly by Europeans whether the planes have a “kill-switch” that would allow the USA to disable the planes any time they want.

This is something that several widely recognized publications such as The Telegraph, The Independent, Deutsche Welle and Financial Times have written about in the course of the past week.

Lars Peder Haga of the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy like other aviation experts denies that there is such a kill switch, but acknowledges that there are other genuine challenges with the F-35.

—“The idea that there’s a red kill switch somewhere in the USA is a bit conspiratorial, because they’d need to have some sort of backdoor into the system to manipulate it. That would mean incorporating a security vulnerability that an enemy could also exploit if they found the right signal.”

—“There are some 9 million lines of code in an F-35. How sure are you about this?”

—“I’m 99% sure of it.”

Haga emphasizes that such a button would brand the American defense industry as unreliable for the rest of eternity, at the same time as he explains that there are a number of other vulnerabilities with the planes.

—“We’re reliant on American industry for many, many things here,” he says:

• Software updates for e.g. dealing with anti-aircraft systems
• Information about enemy systems
• Physical spare parts

And perhaps most importantly:

• The F-35’s entire weapons system

—“So when you’ve used up all your ammunition, and the USA cuts off its supply, it’ll quickly become a very bad system. It would be a matter of months before the planes would all have to be grounded,” Haga says.

A cuckoo’s egg

—“It’s indefensible that Norway’s air defenses through the F-35 are so dependent on the USA as we have seen lately. It makes us vulnerable,” says Seher Aydar of the Red Party.

She is the rapporteur on the F-35 for the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs, which will discuss the planes after the Office of the Auditor General came with sharp critiques of the Norwegian government’s handling of its fighter jet program.

—“The F-35 has become the cuckoo’s egg of the Norwegian Armed Forces,” she adds.

Aydar believes that a large amount of resources have been expended by other parts of the Armed Forces without the planes ever becoming fully operational, and additionally notes the vulnerabilities that have given the USA control over Norway’s air defenses. She is among other things highly critical of the challenges posed by spare parts.

—"The Red Party has confirmed by word of the Ministry of Defense that all spare F-35 parts stored in Norway remain the property of the USA, and that the USA decides which countries are prioritized. We saw this recently with Denmark, where the USA sent spare F-35 parts from Danish warehouses to Israel to support the bombing of Gaza. We believe that it is indefensible for Norway’s air defense capabilities to be so dependent on the priorities of the USA," Aydar says.

The Red Party demands a full investigation of every way in which the Norwegian Armed Forces are or may be dependent on major powers like the USA, China and Russia [TL note: LOL].

The Socialist Left Party is also highly critical of our fighter jets’ reliance on the USA.

—“The other parties in the Storting need to wake up. We cannot have these types of vulnerabilities in our nation’s defense,” says Ingrid Fiskaa of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense.

—“Reliance on the USA’s weapons technology is practically an extreme sport. The Trump administration didn’t hesitate to shut off its intelligence support to Ukraine to pressure them into accepting the USA’s demands, and they’re threatening military force against allies to acquire Greenland,” Fiskaa says.

Israel programs itself

When the USA recently paused its weapons support to Ukraine, Forbes among others reported that the country’s F-16s ended up with a limited ability to jam Russian radars.

Lars Peder Haga of the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy thinks this might be true.

—“That sort of jamming requires constant software updates, because the Russians just adjust their radars and change frequencies. So the updates were presumably stopped for a short while after the fight with Zelensky in the Oval Office, before they’ve now returned to updating,” Haga says.

He also says that Israel has a special solution for their own F-35s.

—“As far as I understand, the Israelis have been given the opportunity to make their own software such that they’re completely independent there.”

—“That doesn’t seem like a bad idea.”

—“It’s not a bad idea, no, they’ve secured themselves in a way that no other F-35 users have.”

—“Canada and Portugal are now reconsidering their F-35 programs. Should Norway do the same?”

—“I understand a bit why they’re doing that, when they’re seeing an administration in the USA that seems to turn on and off their support for the weapons systems they provide on a whim. But Norway’s bought the planes, and is so closely tied to the current system that getting rid of the planes would certainly mean being without working fighter jets for probably several years.”

—“The USA is our most important ally”

Minister of Defense Tore O. Sandvik has no plans to reconsider the purchases.

—“The USA is our most important ally, and we have a close and good cooperation with the USA,” he says through State Secretary Andreas Flåm.

—“To what extent does the Minsiter of Defense believe that the USA can control Norway’s F-35s?”

—“The F-35 is a multinational program, and the plane is developed cooperatively by nine countries. Like with all other capacities, Norway has made adjustments in accordance with the country’s needs,” the State Secretary says.

Flåm adds that Norway has a close cooperation with Italy, which ensures that the F-35 is provided with data about Norway.

—“Another example in the F-35 program is that we together with several other countries using the planes will do all heavy maintenance of our planes at a facility in Italy,” he says.

The Progress Party also doesn’t seem very concerned.

—“The USA is our most important ally, and our cooperation on matters of defense through NATO and the defense industry remains strong. The F-35 is a part of this strategic cooperation that strengthens both Norway’s security and the security of our allies,” says Morten Wold, spokesman for defense policy in the Progress Party.