A defense expert warns NATO countries: we will see more such Russian maneuvers

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Be prepared for that now that the Nordic countries are running NATO, more GPS glitches may occur, a defense expert told Euronews. Jagannath Panda, a spokesman for the Swedish Institute for Security and Development Policy, said the latest NATO exercise would help “NATO countries prepare for the future.”

“The disruption strategy is like a warning to the Nordics about how to coordinate, how to respond and how to respond quickly,” he added.

A busy week in the NATO North

Jagannath Panda’s comments came at the end of a busy week at NATO, during which officials met in Brussels to install and raise the Swedish flag for the first time.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the ceremony that Sweden’s accession to NATO shows that “the door remains open.”

“No one can close it,” Mr. Stoltenberg continued. “Every nation has the right to choose its own path, and we all choose the path of freedom and democracy.”

About 20 thousand troops also completed Operation Nordic Defense, one of the broader missions of Operation Steadfast Defender 24, which the organization called one of the largest military exercises since the Cold War.

These exercises “address security challenges in the Far North,” according to NATO’s website.

NATO is working in the Norwegian Arctic since 2006, holding “cold response” exercises for its troops there every other year.

This year, the mission has expanded following NATO’s “enlargement” in the Arctic, bringing troops, more than 50 ships and more than 110 aircraft to the region.

NATO exercises send a huge signal to Russia

GPS jamming in the Arctic is nothing new, Jagannath Panda told Euronews Next.

“What is new is the scale of the attacks, which began to accelerate after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and now in response to NATO’s escalation,” he said.

Both the expansion and the larger exercises “just send such a huge signal to Russia,” Panda said. “GPS jamming… could be Russia’s strategy to intimidate NATO countries.”

During the exercise NATO Nordic countries established a temporary Nordic Air Operations Center where 300 officers planned, controlled and evaluated air operations in a designated “operations area”.

“The establishment of the Interim Joint Nordic Air Operations Center is yet another clear demonstration of our ability to work together in the important joint task of deterring and ultimately defending NATO’s northern flank,” said Colonel Henrik Nielsen, Chief of Staff of the Danish Air Force Command, in a NATO statement on Tuesday.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement that Moscow would react to Sweden’s entry into NATO, but what that would look like “will depend on what practical steps Stockholm takes” to implement its new membership.

M. Zakharova’s statement did not indicate what steps Sweden should or could take, but it was noted that the Swedish population did not hold a referendum on joining NATO.

GPS blocking is hard to predict: Finland

Although the local press has reported an increase in recent months in all Nordic countries GPS blocking casesSwedish and Norwegian transport authorities did not respond to a request for comment.

At the time, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (TRAFICOM) said in a statement to Euronews that reports of blockages in the aviation sector had increased since the beginning of the year.

This type of interference, the agency said in a statement, “occurs at higher altitudes, has a short duration, and is difficult to verify or prevent later.”

However, TRAFICOM insists it is safe to fly because “airlines have operational procedures for situations where the GPS signal is lost”.

The statement also said there are other parts of the flight, such as the aircraft’s final approach to landing on the runway, that do not require a GPS signal.

Finally, TRAFICOM says that it is up to airlines to decide whether to operate flights if there is known GPS signal interference.