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Swedish Gripen and Danish F-35 Jets Deployed to Secure NATO Arctic Airspace.
NATO’s Allied Command Operations launched Arctic Sentry on 13 February 2026, deploying Swedish Gripen, Danish F-35 and German Eurofighter jets to Iceland. The move strengthens air policing and rapid response over the Arctic and North Atlantic, underscoring the region’s growing strategic weight for transatlantic defense.
On 13 February 2026, NATO’s Allied Command Operations announced the start of Arctic Sentry, a coordinated, multi-domain activity designed to reinforce Allied posture across the Arctic and High North. The initiative, confirmed from Ramstein and published on the official Allied Command Operations website, brings together air policing, surveillance and rapid-reaction forces to ensure a more persistent presence over the North Atlantic approaches. Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighters are operating from Keflavík Air Base in Iceland alongside Danish F-35s and newly deployed German Eurofighters, forming a layered, multinational air defense umbrella over a region increasingly described by NATO officials as a strategic gateway between North America and Europe.
NATO’s Arctic Sentry operation has brought Swedish Gripen, Danish F-35, and German Eurofighter jets to Iceland, strengthening Allied air policing and deterrence across the strategically vital High North corridor (Picture Source: NATO)
Arctic Sentry is conceived as an enhanced vigilance activity: a standing framework that synchronises national and NATO exercises, air policing missions and maritime patrols under a single operational design. Led by Joint Force Command Norfolk, whose area of responsibility now extends across the North Atlantic and into the High North, it aims to give planners continuous visibility of Allied military movements in the region and to knit them into a coherent deterrent posture. The Arctic, and particularly the Greenland–Iceland–UK (GIUK) gap, is treated as a critical junction for sea lines of communication, long-range air approaches and undersea infrastructure that bind North America to Europe. In parallel, NATO’s own Arctic security policy stresses that melting sea ice, new shipping routes and increased Russian and Chinese activity require more robust situational awareness and the ability to operate in extreme weather, extended darkness and electromagnetic-challenged conditions.
Within this architecture, Iceland plays a familiar but now reinforced role. Under the long-standing Airborne Surveillance and Interception Capabilities mission, NATO Allies periodically deploy fighter detachments to safeguard Icelandic airspace and contribute to the Alliance’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence system. For the first time since joining the Alliance, the Swedish Air Force is leading this Iceland Air Policing mission with its JAS 39 Gripen fighters, providing both quick-reaction interception and wider surveillance coverage under Arctic Sentry’s umbrella. Drawing on decades of experience in high-readiness air defence over the Baltic and the Scandinavian Arctic, Swedish Gripen units bring robust datalink networking, agile short-runway performance and cold-weather operating practices that are well suited to Iceland’s rapidly changing weather and limited infrastructure. Official Swedish government communications explicitly frame this contribution as a test of Sweden’s new responsibilities as one of NATO’s Arctic Allies and as a means to help safeguard critical infrastructure and sea lines of communication in the wider North Atlantic.
Operating alongside the Gripens at Keflavík are Danish F-35 fighter jets supplied by the Royal Danish Air Force and German Eurofighter Typhoons from the German Air Force, supported by the Multinational Multirole Tanker Transport Unit’s A330 MRTT aircraft. This triple-nation, triple-type detachment, fourth-generation Gripens, 4.5-generation Eurofighters and fifth-generation F-35s, is in itself a demonstration of NATO’s Agile Combat Employment concepts, which emphasise dispersal, rapid redeployment and cross-national support. The different aircraft bring complementary strengths: the Gripen’s efficient footprint and powerful datalink for day-to-day air policing, the Eurofighter’s high-altitude air superiority and quick climb performance for long-range interception, and the F-35’s low-observable design and sensor fusion for deep situational awareness across air and maritime domains. Danish authorities have made clear that their F-35 contribution is part of a broader decision to assume more responsibility for Arctic security, particularly in areas linked to Greenland and the North Atlantic approaches.
Keflavík’s position at the hinge of the GIUK gap makes this combined detachment more than symbolic. It sits astride the main corridor through which Russian long-range aviation and submarines of the Northern Fleet must transit when moving from the Barents and Arctic seas into the wider North Atlantic. From Keflavík, Gripen, F-35 and Eurofighter patrols can rapidly identify, shadow or intercept aircraft approaching Allied airspace and contribute to the tracking of surface and subsurface contacts using their own sensors or those of accompanying maritime patrol aircraft. In peacetime, this translates into routine identification of military and state aircraft operating near Icelandic airspace; in crisis, it provides the first layer of air defence for reinforcement routes carrying troops and materiel from North America to Europe. The same posture also serves as a form of protection for undersea cables and energy pipelines, whose vulnerability to covert interference has become a central concern in Allied capitals.
The air operations under Arctic Sentry are designed to dovetail with an increasingly visible naval presence in the High North. Army Recognition Group has reported that the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence will deploy a carrier strike group centred on the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales across the North Atlantic and into the High North under Operation Firecrest, explicitly framed as a contribution to NATO deterrence amid rising Russian naval activity and concern over vulnerable undersea infrastructure. The strike group is expected to combine F-35B Lightning II aircraft, Type 45 air-defence destroyers, anti-submarine frigates, an Astute-class attack submarine and Royal Fleet Auxiliary support ships, giving the Royal Navy a sustained air and maritime surveillance and strike capability in the same geography that Arctic Sentry is seeking to structure. Army Recognition’s analysis underlines that this deployment will also operate in connection with Arctic Sentry activities and Standing NATO Maritime Group 1, tying the carrier group into the same command and control architecture led from Norfolk.
These converging air and naval deployments carry clear geopolitical signals. For Sweden, sending Gripens to Keflavík is both a demonstration of solidarity with Allies and a way to anchor its recent accession to NATO in tangible operational contributions. For Denmark, whose defence responsibilities extend to the Faroe Islands and Greenland, basing F-35s in Iceland closes gaps between national surveillance responsibilities and NATO’s wider regional posture. Germany’s Eurofighter deployment, and its broader participation in Arctic Sentry, reflects Berlin’s willingness to extend its airpower beyond the Baltic and Central European theatres into the High North, aligning with its own defence white papers that identify Arctic access routes as critical to European security. These moves answer long-standing calls from Arctic and North Atlantic Allies such as Norway and Canada for a more visible Allied posture facing the North.
At the same time, the messaging is not directed solely at regional audiences. Official Swedish statements explicitly link Arctic Sentry to the need to respond to a security environment in which Russia is modernising its forces and intensifying activity in the Arctic, while defence cooperation between Russia and China deepens. NATO’s decision to frame Arctic Sentry as a multi-domain activity rather than a limited exercise signals that the Alliance now expects the High North to be a theatre of sustained strategic competition rather than an episodic training environment. At sea, the deployment of HMS Prince of Wales under Operation Firecrest is coupled with British plans to double troop deployments to Norway and to invest more heavily in undersea infrastructure protection; in the air, the rotation of Gripen, F-35 and Eurofighter detachments to Keflavík shows that Allied airpower is being configured for regular operations in Arctic conditions rather than occasional visits. The cumulative effect is to complicate potential Russian attempts to exploit gaps in surveillance or response times along the North Atlantic approaches.
For the Alliance, Arctic Sentry and the associated deployments in Iceland and the North Atlantic mark a transition from symbolic presence to structured, multi-layered deterrence in the High North. The combination of Swedish Gripens, Danish F-35s and German Eurofighters at Keflavík, integrated with NATO command and control networks and supported by multinational tanker assets, provides a capable air defence and surveillance shield at the entrance to the GIUK gap, while the HMS Prince of Wales carrier strike group extends that shield seaward with persistent maritime domain awareness and a credible strike capability. Together, these air and naval elements give NATO greater warning, more options and faster response times in a region where strategic warning distances are shrinking and critical infrastructure is increasingly exposed. The message to allies and competitors alike is that the Arctic and the High North are no longer peripheral to Euro-Atlantic security but central to it, and that NATO intends to be present, coordinated and ready there for the long term.
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.