First of all, Norway shares their border and coastline with Russia, who would like nothing more than to gain more control over Norway’s fisheries and oil fields

First of all, Norway shares their border and coastline with Russia, who would like nothing more than to gain more control over Norway’s fisheries and oil fields, although they’re certainly more friendly now than they were during Soviet times. Second of all, the EU also wants a cut of Norway’s fisheries and oil, although on far better terms. As such, the USA has always treated Norway fairly and favourably in order to gain access to our oil fields. Thus it’s only natural that the favour is returned. On top of that, Norway has for at least a hundred years had very close ties to the USA due to emigration. Compare that to the rather lukewarm political help Norway got from Sweden during WWII (though their hands were obviously tied) and the strategically insignificant position they’re in to help in future conflicts, given that they are still outside the NATO—where Norway is of course heavily entrenched with their former P.M. Jens Stoltenberg as the current General Secretary. Thus it was an easy call to ditch Sweden’s JAS Gripen in favour of the F35, despite some issues with data transmissions. While the JAS Gripen perhaps has similar capabilities to that of the F16—which is in fact a far superiour defensive dogfighter compared to the F35—the F35 is a better ground attack plane, and it has stealth.