The smiles were essential on April 28 in Orland, one of the main bases of the Norwegian Air Force, located at the end of a vast fjord beaten by the winds, on the west coast of the country. On the Tarmac, the Norwegian Minister of Defense, Tore O. Sandvik, attended a particular ceremony. The honors were intended for newcomers to the ranks of the Luftforsvaret, the Norwegian Air Force: two F-35, this fighter plane manufactured by the American Lockheed Martin and considered one of the most efficient in the world.
But was the heart really? Initially, the ceremony was to celebrate the accession of the Nordic kingdom as the world's first country to have a full fleet of F-35: 52 fighter planes, obtained after almost seventeen years of waiting and some 8 billion euros in investments. But because of the rapprochement of the American president, Donald Trump, with Russia of Vladimir Putin, the declarations of each other hollow, on this spring day, in a country particularly exposed to the military aggressiveness of Moscow.
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Source: Lemonde