334 Squadron will only have its command post and maintenance facilities at Bardufoss, as the helicopters will be stationed on the new Fridtjof Nansen class frigates when they arrive.

46 Squadron RAF) operating from Bardufoss played a vital part in keeping the Luftwaffe at bay during the fighting on the Narvik front in the April–June 1940 Norwegian Campaign.

After the Allied withdrawal from Norway, the airbase was taken over by the Germans and mostly used as a base for fighters, bombers and reconnaissance planes operating against the Murmansk convoys.

When British Avro Lancasters began to bomb the battleship Tirpitz on 12 November 1944 in Operation Catechism at Håkøya near Tromsø, calls to Bardufoss failed to save the ship.

The fighters failed to scramble in time and Tirpitz was sunk in ten minutes[2] by two Tallboy bombs.

The Royal Norwegian Air Force Flight Training School was moved to Bardufoss from Trondheim Airport, Værnes in 2003.

Previous to their delivery, the squadron operated UH-1's bought used from the USA: some of those machines were received with minor battle damages and bullet holes, having seen action in the Vietnam War.