Murphy's Law: French Fighters Over Iceland

Archives

April 25,2008: French jet fighters are replacing American ones in defending Icelandic air space. The U.S. has had troops stationed in Iceland since World War II. That's because Iceland has no armed forces of its own, and occupies a strategic position in the north Atlantic. During the Cold War, U.S. warplanes regularly intercepted Russian maritime patrol aircraft that strayed into Icelandic airspace. But two years ago, the U.S. Air Force withdrew its fighters. Right about then, Russian long-range patrol aircraft, which had been absent since the Cold War ended in 1991, returned. Since then, Russian aircraft have wandered into Icelandic air space 13 times. So the Icelandic Defense Minister (actually the Minister of Justice, who also takes care of military matters), asked NATO for some help. Four French Mirage 2000 interceptors are off to Iceland. Other NATO countries will provide interceptors on a rotating basis.

X

ad

On July 24th we will have been at it for 26 years.

But we need your help to keep going! The summer months are our lowest revenue months. And we need your support.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close