CAOC Bodø Completes First Major Exercise as a Fully-Fledged NATO Headquarters

"One of the most important things for us now is to get the new allied air operations center to work well in line with NATO's and national intentions."

This was emphasized by the Chief of the Norwegian Air Force, Major General Øivind Gunnerud, to HNN when we asked what the focus for the Air Force is in the High North.

The new Combined Air Operations Center Bodø was inaugurated in October 2025 and is to strengthen NATO's ability to protect allied airspace. The center is particularly responsible for the command and control of the airspace in the Nordic region and the High North.

After just six months of operation, the center has for the first time commanded, coordinated and controlled air operations in a major multi-domain live-flying exercise, and as a fully NATO headquarters, during the major winter exercise Cold Response. The exercise, which took place just a few weeks ago, included air operations across several Nordic countries.

Good learning outcomes

Gunnerud says that the exercise overall went excellently for the relatively new center, which can monitor about 30,000 movements in allied airspace every day.

"In some areas, it has gone even better than what many might have expected," says the air force chief and continues:

"Naturally, a lot of new personnel were going to participate in such an important exercise for the first time. The exercise is medium-sized in terms of the number of countries, people, and aircraft systems, which is what we manage. However, this went very well. We also learned a lot, which we will apply next time, so that we become even better," he continues.

"It is also very important that things went safely. Many of the operations are not risk-free," he adds.

The importance of liaison between countries

With a lot of new personnel, how has the cooperation between NATO countries at the center been?

"The cooperation has gone as planned," underlines Gunnerud, pointing to the significance of liaison officers at the center, among other things. These functions as links between different countries' forces and contribute to improved communication."

"This contributes to having a greater understanding of the units you are to integrate out there, what needs they have, what is required for them to function, and not least what they can contribute. The purpose is to integrate what we call air power, to function as best as possible in relation to the missions we are assigned. This worked well," he explains.

Nordic integration in development

Gunnerud is also clear that the air operations center continues to be a good basis for the ongoing integration of the Nordic air forces.

"Being a part of its construction and development can strengthen us from a Nordic perspective," the Swedish Air Force chief has previously stated to HNN.

"We are currently being integrated very well into this air operations center, but we have also established exercise, practice, and education together in many other arenas as well," underlines Gunnerud, adding:

"Instead of, for example, establishing our own education in each of our countries, we are combining this to a greater extent. In this way, we can avoid duplicating school departments to provide education. An example is the various courses offered in the different countries to build competence."

In conclusion, it is now also clear that the Norwegian Armed Forces' base in Bodø will serve as permanent premises for the air operations centre, instead of the mountain facility at Reitan outside Bodø. This was confirmed by the Ministry of Defense to NRK earlier this year. 

In December, the government decided to offer the Armed Forces base in Bodø as a permanent location, even though this was originally intended as a temporary site. 

"We are working on improving the property we have. We gained some experience during the exercise regarding some adjustments we need to make, which we will take with us for next time," concludes Gunnerud.