Noise and Existing Hangars Loom Large in Norwegian Fighter Competition

Norway is deciding between the upgraded Gripen-N and F-135 for a replacement for its F-16 fleet, and it appears that the F-35 may be significantly larger and noisier than they would like(Paid Subscription Required).

Aircraft noise and politically sensitive basing options may become decisive factors in Norway’s selection process for a new fighter aircraft to replace the country’s Lockheed Martin F-16s.

New information received from the two remaining contenders (Lockheed Martin’s F-35A and Saab’s enhanced Gripen-N) indicates that one (understood to be the F-35) is “significantly more noisy” than the other, senior government and military sources here say.

The information could mean that Norway’s Bodo Main Air Station, located right outside a major population center, gets ruled out as a future operating base if the F-35 is selected. Bodo is one of two active fighter bases in Norway, the other one being Oerland, which is in a sparsely populated area 50 mi. from Trondheim.

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At Oerland, too, the F-35 appears to have one disadvantage compared to Gripen, which is that the U.S. jet is too bulky to fit inside the hardened aircraft shelters there (those at Bodo are larger). “The question is,” [State Secretary for Defense Espen Barth ]Eide allows, “does that really matter at a time when the trend is to no longer operate out of hardened facilities?”

Given that the F-35 is more than twice the gross weight, and roughly twice the thrust of the Gripen-N, basic physics say that it will be noisier.