Norway backs the F-35, warns about a weak NATO.

Defense News has a story on the future of NATO by Norways Defense Minister but a tidbit of F-35 news was thrown in too....

"We're purchasing the F-35," Barth Eide said. "Hopefully, we'll get it."
Norway made a "complex set of simulations" which showed that while conventional non-stealthy aircraft like the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale, and next generation Saab Gripen are perfectly adequate for wars like Afghanistan where there is a permissive threat environment, only the F-35 was suitable to fight a high-end adversary. Barth Eide, without mentioning a country by name, said that such a high-end threat existed in Norway's vicinity.
"There was only one aircraft that would do," he said.
Norway has made a "decision in principle" to buy four initial aircraft, and plans a fleet of 48.

and then this part about a weak NATO...

"I think we're getting worse at it because of the many cuts happening in a lot of European countries," the minister said. "If we're not smart, [defense cuts] may lead to a further weakening of the core ability to defend ourselves."
If NATO's core ability to defend itself is weakened, the alliance's ability to conduct out-of-area operations like Afghanistan will also wither away, Barth Eide said.
NATO has to strongly reassert Article 5 of the treaty and the decline of conventional capabilities has to stop, he said. The focus needs to shift away from large armies conducting stability operations to the air and sea, he added.

Wow.

Seems like Norway is signing on to an American two-fer...

First it's signing onto the F-35...and second, its appears that he's saying Air-Sea battle is the wave of the future.  Told you Counter Insurgency as conducted in Afghanistan is as dead as disco in the West.