The NATO member, which shares a border with Russia in the Arctic, is responsible for monitoring some 2 million square kilometers of sea and has long been seeking to boost its monitoring capacity.

"This will strengthen our national control, the military's preparedness and our presence in the northern areas," Norwegian Defense Minister Bjoern Arild Gram told a news conference, adding the helicopters would be able to track submarines, as quoted by Reuters.

Russia's Northern Fleet and its nuclear submarines are based on the Kola Peninsula, which borders Norway in the Arctic.

The first delivery would be in the summer of 2025 and would continue until 2027, he said.

In June, Oslo said it was axing its fleet of NH90 military helicopters and said it would ask for a refund from a consortium led by Airbus, which hit back at the time by calling the move "legally groundless".

Norway said the helicopters it ordered from NHIndustries (NHI), owned by Airbus Helicopters, Italy's Leonardo and Fokker Aerostructures of the Netherlands, were either unreliable, were delivered late or not delivered.

NHIndustries was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.

In October, Norway put its military on a raised level of alert, moving more personnel on to operational duties, in response to the war in Ukraine.

Norway and NATO also deployed their military to guard offshore oil and gas platforms in the wake of the explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines on Sept. 26 in Swedish and Danish waters.

Norway last year became Europe's largest gas supplier, following a drop in Russian gas flows.

Norway’s choice

Meanwhile, AFP reported the Norwegian NH90 fleet consisted of 14 helicopters.

Six of those aircraft were intended for the Norwegian Navy to combat submarines, the other eight for surveillance and Coast Guard rescue missions.

Norway's defense ministry said in a statement that the helicopters would "initially be used by the Coast Guard, but they will also be prepared to be equipped for anti-submarine operations".

To justify the lower number of helicopters than initially envisaged, Gram said some missions could now be carried out by drones.

The choice of helicopters to supply the Norwegian Navy's four frigates has not yet been decided.

Norway justified tearing up the 2001 contract with NHI by pointing to the fact that only eight fully operational helicopters had been delivered 20 years later, with the original target for the full batch having been 2008.

The Norwegian military also complained about reliability, maintenance and obsolescence issues that were reducing the number of flight hours of the NH90s.