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Angry Norway says Russia jamming GPS signals again
OSLO, Feb 11, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Norway’s foreign intelligence unit on
Monday expressed renewed concerns that its GPS signals in the country’s Far
North were being jammed, as Oslo again blamed Russia for the “unacceptable”
acts.
In its annual national risk assessment report, the intelligence service
said that in repeated incidents since 2017, GPS signals have been blocked
from Russian territory in Norwegian regions near the border with Russia.
The jamming events have often coincided with military exercises on
Norwegian soil, such as the NATO Trident Juncture manoeuvres last autumn and
the mid-January deployment of British attack helicopters in Norway for
training in Arctic conditions.
“This is not only a new challenge for Norwegian and Allied training
operations,” the head of the intelligence unit, Morten Haga Lunde, said as he
presented the report.
“Jamming is also a threat to, among others, civilian air traffic and
police and health operations in peacetime.”
Norway has on several occasions raised the issue with Russian authorities,
and is cooperating with other Nordic countries to gather as much information
as possible, Defence Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen said.
“It’s important… to say clearly that this is unacceptable,” he told
television channel TV2 Nyhetskanalen.
In November, neighbouring Finland summoned Russia’s ambassador to Helsinki
to answer to accusations that Moscow had disrupted geopositioning signals on
its territory during the Trident Juncture exercises.
Moscow has rejected the allegations as baseless.
BSS/AFP/RY/18:26 hrs