Now, while Gripen and Rafales roar in the blue and spring sky, there is hardly a frost.
“More and more air forces are coming to Luleå,” said Stefan Kaarle, a driver who has been in the Swedish air force for 30 years. “It is a fairly important area of the world at the moment and many NATO countries want to show that they can operate from the high North.”
The proximity of Sweden with Russia, and previously the Soviet Union, prompted Swedish pilots to learn to land on roads and highways – a technique that requires specific logistics and support. Such competence could be useful for other NATO allies, because it limits dependence on aerodromes, which can be more easily targeted by enemy forces.
“We do not necessarily need this in France, but it is good to have several strings in our bow,” said Colonel Frédéric Dalorso, the deputy chief of the northern Pégase High mission.
One of the objectives of the French mission, he explained, is to repeat NATO regional defense plans. The French worked to improve their agile combat employment skills – a NATO maneuver program which involves flying quickly and far – while the Swedes train to fill up on their French MRTT war planes.
Aerial refueling has been identified as a gap of key capacity for Europeans if the United States disengaged from the continent.
In Luleå, Sweden and France worked on cross -maintenance and logistics using local mechanisms and local spare parts, for example aircraft tires. More broadly, the objective of Pegasus High North is also to identify the favorite areas for the regional defense plans of NATO.
“In this way, if we have to deploy in six months or a year, contacts will have already been established,” said Dalorso.
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