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Sweden’s Gripen Fighter Jets Deployment to Iceland Deepens NATO Air Policing and Arctic Deterrence.
Six Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighters have deployed to Iceland to support NATO Air Policing, marking Sweden’s first such mission since joining the Alliance. The operation strengthens NATO’s deterrence posture in the North Atlantic as military activity increases in the Arctic region.
On February 4, 2026, the Swedish Armed Forces announced that six JAS 39 Gripen fighters from Skaraborg Air Wing F 7 had landed at Keflavík Air Base in Iceland to support NATO Air Policing during February and March 2026. The deployment, marks the 55th air policing rotation over Iceland, but the first led by the Swedish Air Force since Sweden joined NATO. A complementary announcement by NATO Allied Air Command on February 6 described the mission as a historic moment for the Alliance’s newest Ally, underlining how Stockholm’s accession has already translated into concrete operational commitments. In a context of heightened tension with Russia and growing military activity in the Arctic and North Atlantic, the move has implications that go well beyond Icelandic airspace alone.
Six Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighters have deployed to Iceland for NATO air policing, marking Sweden’s first operational contribution to Alliance air defense while reinforcing deterrence in the Arctic and North Atlantic (Picture Source: Britannica / NATO / Swedish Armed Forces)
On Monday, February 2, the Swedish detachment of six JAS 39 Gripen aircraft arrived at Keflavík, accompanied by just over 110 air and ground personnel. Most are drawn from Skaraborg Air Wing F 7, reinforced by specialists from across the Swedish Air Force. Planning has been underway for months, and once on the ground in Iceland, the tempo was immediately high, with the priority on bringing aircraft, logistics, and command-and-control systems to full readiness. For F 7, this is both a debut on Icelandic soil and a first test of its ability to sustain a NATO mission at a distance, under Allied command, for several weeks.
The deployment is conducted under NATO’s Airborne Surveillance and Interception Capabilities to meet Iceland’s Peacetime Preparedness Needs, the framework that compensates for the fact that Iceland has no national air force. Since 2008, Allied fighter units have rotated through Keflavík to provide air surveillance, interception of unknown aircraft, and assistance to civilian traffic in difficulty. Swedish Gripens now slot into this established pattern, taking over quick reaction alert duties and integrating into NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre in Uedem and the wider Integrated Air and Missile Defense System. For Swedish crews, it is a shift from participating as a close partner to operating as a full Ally inside NATO’s permanent air policing architecture.
At the heart of this rotation stands the JAS 39 Gripen itself, a multirole fighter conceived for the demands of Nordic air defense. The aircraft combines a delta wing and canard layout with a powerful engine and digital flight control system, giving it high agility and solid performance at both low and high altitude. Its relatively compact size and low fuel consumption translate into competitive operating costs, which matters when maintaining sustained air policing detachments. In Iceland, those characteristics are coupled with rugged landing gear and short takeoff and landing performance, making it well suited to operations from a single main base and, if needed, from shorter or less prepared runways elsewhere.
The Gripens deployed to Iceland are understood to be from the C/D generation in Swedish service, equipped with the PS-05/A pulse-Doppler multimode radar. This sensor can detect and track multiple airborne targets at significant range, while also providing ground mapping and sea search modes that are directly relevant in the North Atlantic environment. The radar works in concert with an integrated electronic warfare suite, including radar warning receivers and jamming capabilities, designed to cope with advanced air defense systems. On top of that, the aircraft’s avionics architecture allows a high degree of sensor fusion, feeding information from radar, electronic support measures, and data links into a unified tactical picture in the cockpit. This combination is particularly valuable for a mission where rapid identification and classification of contacts, often in challenging weather and over water, is essential.
Armament options also matter for the credibility of the deployment, even if the mission is framed as peacetime air policing. The Gripen C/D can carry beyond-visual-range missiles such as Meteor, as well as infrared-guided short-range missiles like IRIS-T, supported by an internal 27 mm cannon for close engagements. In an Icelandic context, typical loadouts are likely to prioritize air-to-air weapons and external fuel tanks to maximize endurance on station. The ability to combine long-range radar, secure data links such as Link 16 and national tactical data links with modern missiles gives the Swedish detachment a credible interception capability against everything from civilian airliners that have lost communications to long-range bombers or maritime patrol aircraft probing NATO airspace.
This is not Sweden’s first exposure to multinational air policing, but it is a new level of responsibility. Swedish Gripens have taken part in numerous NATO exercises and cooperative air activities over the Baltic region and elsewhere, operating alongside Allied aircraft in complex scenarios. What changes here is that Swedish pilots and controllers are now responsible for delivering the air policing effect over an Ally’s territory for a defined period. From Keflavík, sorties are flown under NATO tasking, coordinated in real time with the Combined Air Operations Centre and with other Allied assets such as AWACS aircraft. This gives Swedish crews intensive training in NATO procedures for quick reaction alert, intercept profiles, identification of noncooperative aircraft, and close coordination with civilian air traffic control.
On the tactical level, the Swedish presence increases the density and flexibility of Allied air power on NATO’s northwestern flank. Iceland’s airspace lies astride major civilian air routes and near military corridors that are routinely monitored by both NATO and Russia. By taking on the quick reaction alert role, the Gripen detachment improves the Alliance’s ability to respond within minutes to any unidentified or nonresponsive aircraft approaching or transiting Icelandic airspace. The combination of capable radar, modern missiles, and robust communications means that a small number of aircraft, correctly supported, can maintain a credible 24/7 posture. For the Swedish Air Force, maintaining that posture in the harsh winter conditions of the North Atlantic, strong winds, icing, rapidly changing visibility, adds realistic stress that peacetime training at home can only partly replicate.
The deployment is one element of a broader reconfiguration of air power in northern Europe since Sweden and Finland joined NATO. The Alliance can now view the Baltic Sea, the Nordic Peninsula, and the North Atlantic as a connected operational space rather than three separate regions. Swedish Gripens in Iceland sit at one end of this arc; Finnish, Norwegian, and Danish aircraft cover other segments; and ground-based air defenses and maritime forces complement the air picture. The Iceland rotation therefore has symbolic value, but it is also a practical test of how quickly Nordic air units can be moved, integrated, and sustained where they are most needed. It offers NATO planners concrete data on sortie generation rates, logistics chains, and interoperability when a non-U.S., non-F-35 fleet assumes an air policing mission on the Alliance’s outer perimeter.
The geostrategic dimension is equally important. The Greenland–Iceland–United Kingdom gap remains a key transit route for both civilian traffic and military forces moving between North America and Europe. It is also a zone that Russian long-range aviation and maritime patrol aircraft use when signaling presence or testing Allied reactions. By stationing six frontline fighters and a sizeable support contingent in Iceland, Sweden adds to NATO’s capacity to monitor and, if necessary, challenge such activity. The message is that the northern flank is not a peripheral theater but a core component of the Alliance’s deterrence and defense posture, where new members are expected to contribute alongside longer-standing Allies. In that sense, the Gripen detachment is a practical expression of Sweden’s stated intention to “step up as a new member of NATO on the northern flank and focus, among other things, on the Arctic,” as underlined by Swedish officers leading the mission.
The image of Swedish fighters operating from Keflavík under NATO command is a strong signal in itself. For decades, Sweden’s security policy was built around military nonalignment combined with a robust national defense industry and a strong air force designed to deter or complicate any attack. With NATO membership now a reality, those national capabilities are being woven into the Alliance’s collective arrangements. Choosing to send a core capability like Gripen, and to assume responsibility for Icelandic air policing for the first time, demonstrates that Sweden is prepared to shoulder visible duties on NATO’s outer perimeter, not only in its immediate Baltic neighborhood. It also offers reassurance to Iceland, which relies entirely on Allied solidarity for the defense of its airspace.
By deploying six JAS 39 Gripen fighters and more than one hundred personnel to Keflavík for this first Icelandic Air Policing rotation under Swedish lead, Stockholm turns its recent political decision to join NATO into tangible, day-to-day action on one of the Alliance’s most exposed frontiers. The mission strengthens routine air safety over Iceland, reinforces NATO’s ability to monitor and react in the North Atlantic, and anchors a more integrated Nordic contribution to collective defense from the Baltic Sea to the Arctic and the GIUK gap. It also confirms that the Gripen fleet, designed for dispersed operations in demanding conditions, is now firmly embedded in the Euro-Atlantic security architecture. For Allies and potential adversaries alike, Swedish fighters over Iceland are a clear demonstration that Sweden’s NATO membership is no longer an abstract concept but a concrete, strategically meaningful reality.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.