On Sunday, Prime Minister Juha Sipila told Yleisradio Oy (Yle), Finland’s national public broadcasting company, that large-scale GPS blackouts over northern Finland during Nato war exercises over the past few weeks were intentional and the culprit could be Russia.
Air Navigation Services Finland (ANS Finland) issued a warning last week for all air traffic due to massive GPS interruption in the northern region of the country. Norway also posted a similar notice about GPS disruption for air traffic during the NATO exercise.
Here is the announcement on Eurocontrol’s website:
Ivalo airport in Finland’s northernmost region issued a warning of unstable GPS signals last week. The warning was posted as Notice to Airman.
Lapland in Finland and Finnmark in Norway were some of the most affected regions.
“It is possible that Russia has been the disrupting party in this. Russia is known to possess such capabilities,” Sipila told Yle.
The war exercise was mainly conducted in Norway but field training exercises extended into the North Atlantic and the Baltic Sea, as well as in Finland, Sweden, and Iceland. About 29 NATO members and partner countries Finland and Sweden participated in the most significant phase of the exercise, the LIVEX, which was held between October 25 and November 07.
Finland’s participation in Nato’s Trident Juncture has been seen as a move that pushes Helsinki, the capital of Finland, towards Washington, a move that has infuriated Russia.
“Technology-wise it’s relatively easy to disturb a radio signal, and it’s possible that Russia was behind it,” Sipila said, adding that Russia has the capabilities to do it.
”It’s a message to all parties participating in the military exercise,” he warned.
Sipila said GPS jamming poses a severe risk to the commercial aviation industry, it increases the chance of civilian air traffic accidents, and that Finland has prepared to deal with these types of disturbances.
Then on Monday afternoon, Moscow dismissed Sipila’s claims, according to Reuters. Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a call he had zero information that Russia could have been responsible and said his country was regularly accused of all kinds of crimes, most of which were baseless.
While there is no confirmation on who exactly launched the GPS blackout over Finland and Norway during the war exercises, one can certainly get the picture that governments are not telling the public that an electronic warfare battle could be underway (between Russia and NATO), or if that is not the case, then maybe a false flag. No matter who caused the incident, the war drums are beating.
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