Activities

The number of operational flights has increased. This is mainly due to more frequent and shorter cruises. Throughout the year there has periodically been little availability on aircrafts due to technical and staffing challenges. This means the high number of flights has been done with a few number of machines and crews.

A scramble is when a fighter jet takes off to intercept and/ or identify an unknown aircraft. In the table above the number of scrambles is lower than the number of identifications. This is because several aircrafts can be identified on each mission. For example, a Russian strategic bomber is often supported by both a tanker and fighter aircraft. The past couple of years have seen a slight increase in Russian air activity in international airspace along Norwegian airspace, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2014. One reason for this is that Russian flight formations now contain more aircrafts.