NATO officially opens High North CAOC in Norway

Swedish Gripens taxi ahead of departing for a sortie as part of NATO's Icelandic air policing mission. This and other High North missions will eventually be controlled from the new CAOC that NATO has stood up at Bodø Air Base in Norway. (Swedish Armed Forces)

NATO has officially opened its third Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC), with the facility in Norway set to take on particular responsibility for the High North.

NATO Allied Air Command (AIRCOM) told Janes on 4 March that the facility was stood up at its temporary home at Bodø Air Base in October 2025, while construction of its permanent mountain base facility at nearby Reitan continues.

“[The] CAOC in Bodø will enhance operational awareness in the High North and will build critical redundancy into NATO's air command-and-control (C2) architecture, complementing the other two NATO CAOCs,” an AIRCOM spokesperson said, noting the relationship of the Bodø CAOC to the two already established CAOCs at Uedem in Germany and Torrejón in Spain.

“Together, the three [CAOCs] form a resilient network capable of ensuring continuous C2 across all operations. This structure enhances NATO's ability to conduct dispersed air operations from multiple locations across the alliance, ensuring flexibility, survivability, and seamless co-ordination in a complex and contested security environment,” he added.

As the spokesperson noted, the CAOC at Bodø is now set to gradually assume additional missions and capabilities in the coming months and years, as it grows in operational capability alongside Uedem and Torrejón. It will also work closely with the Deployable Air Command and Control Centre (DACCC) based at Poggio Renatico, in Italy.