Norway gives Kremlin evidence of Russia’s involvement in GPS failures during NATO exercises
The Norwegian Defense Minister, Frank Bakke-Jensen, announced that Norway received electronic evidence about Russia's interference with the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation during recent NATO exercises. He has demanded an explanation from Moscow, reports Voice of America.
Norway and Finland suspected that Russia has interfered with the GPS signals before and during the exercises in November 2018. This interference also affected the navigation of civilian air traffic in the Arctic.
Both Norway and Finland expressed their protest against Russia, but Moscow dismissed the accusations.
“Russia asked for evidence, and we submitted it,” the Norwegian defense minister told reporters, adding that the evidence consists of measurements showing interference with the signal.
"Russia said, "thank you, we will contact you when our experts review this data.” “To receive such a response from Russia is a positive event, he said." Patience is required to be a neighbor of Russia. "
Responding to a question about whether the intervention could have been intentional, the minister said that "they worked very close to the border and knew that this would affect areas on the other side".
From October 25 to November 7, Norway held Trident Juncture 18 military exercises, which involved 50 thousand military personnel from 30 NATO countries and their allies, 10 thousand vehicles, 250 aircraft and 65 ships. These were the largest NATO exercises since at least 2002, and the largest exercises in Norway’s history. Ukraine also participated in the exercises.
During the exercises, the GPS system were intermittently failing in the arctic regions of Finland. Similar failures were recorded in Norway. Oslo also associates these failures with Russia’s increased activity in the region during the NATO exercises.
Due to the GPS incident, Finland summoned Russia’s ambassador Pavel Kuznetsov.