Norwegian air force to operate new C-UAS system at Evenes Air Station

A Norwegian F-35 returning to Evenes Air Station after identifying and shadowing a Russian Ilyushin Il-20M on 11 March 2026. (Janes/Tamara Rozouvan)

The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) was testing an undisclosed counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) for the first time at the Evenes Air Station, Commander 133 Air Wing Colonel Hans Martin Steiro confirmed to Janes on 11 March at the airbase in northern Norway.

“The system is new, we just installed it, and we are testing it during the [Norwegian-led NATO] Exercise [‘Cold Response 2026'],” Col Steiro said. Once the testing is finished, the new system will be operational at the Evenes Air Station, he added.

F-35s

Two Norwegian F-35 fighter jets took off from Evenes Air Station on 11 March “for an operational mission, which has higher priority than the exercise [‘Cold Response']”, Col Steiro announced during a presentation. “Most probably it is to identify a Russian aircraft,” he added without providing further details.

Later that day the Norwegian Armed Forces said in a press release that the F-35s were scrambled to identify a Russian Ilyushin Il-20M ‘Coot-A' surveillance aircraft, flying off Finnmark in northern Norway with its transponders being turned off. Two Norwegian F-35s were scrambled to identify an Il-20M on 10 March as well.

In May 2018, a Russian media agency reported that a modernised Il-20M aircraft had been delivered to the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) for state trials after being upgraded, as per Janes All the World's Aircraft: In Service. The upgrade to what the MoD called “MS standard” included the addition of two new digital long range oblique photography (LOROP) cameras, replacing wet-film A-87PA LOROP oblique cameras, according to Janes.