The Atlantic

How One NATO Country Is Preparing for Trump

A dispatch from Norway's military buildup
Source: Pierre-Henry Deshayes / AFP / Getty Images

BODØ AIR FORCE BASE, NorwayWhen the ready-room alarm went off—high-low, high-low—two Norwegian Air Force pilots pulled on cold-water survival gear, grabbed their flight bags, and sprinted through swirling snow to their hangars. Their decades-old F-16 fighter jets roared to life, and as the airport snowplow halted to let them pass, the jets taxied to the runway and lit the afterburners. The training run took less than 10 minutes.

Norway has long kept two jets on round-the-clock alert at this Arctic base, allowing NATO to put eyes on the Russian warplanes that round the North Cape and head southwest. And while Moscow’s new assertiveness has Oslo preparing additional military units to react more quickly, defense officials here

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