Electronic Russian war exercises targeting the Russian military has unintentionally crashed GPS abilities within Finnmark & Norway.
Widerøe and SAS reported serious electronic trouble within eastern Finnmark airspace late in 2017. Both notified that electronic global positioning satellite (GPS) capabilities failed completely when the air carriers descended below 3000 meters.
Norwegian Intelligence chief Morten Haga Lunde gave statement to Aftenposten, saying: ‘We have intelligence information that reveals Russian EKOM equip. was deployed during Russian war exercises near Norway. We believe (Russian) electronic maneuvers were the cause of GPS signal loss within Norwegian territory. Russia has
seriously invested in electronic warfare and now has high expertise and capabilities to interfere with electromagnetic signals.’
Norwegian intelligence authorities hold a position that Russia didn’t primarily intend to shut down Finnish or Norwegian GPS signals, but that the loss was a result of Russian jamming equipment being used against Russian forces during their military exercises and training.
Russian electronic interference with the Finnish & Norwegian GPS networks began early September, 2017 and was decided to be kept classified by Norwegian authorities until the exact nature of the scenario was determined.
Loss of commercial aircraft GPS capabilities certainly could have resulted in a catastrophic air disaster, but Norwegian Intel believes Russian GPS jamming over Finland/Norway was not the intent of the Russian government nor Russin military.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
