OSLO - Norway's foreign intelligence unit on Monday expressed fresh concerns over GPS jamming in the country's Far North, as Oslo again accused Russia of 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 GPS jammer Russian territory in Norwegian areas close to the border with Russia.
Jamming events have often coincided with military exercises on Norwegian soil, such as NATO's Trident Juncture maneuvers last fall and the mid-January deployment of British attack helicopters to Norway to training in arctic conditions.
“This is not just a new challenge for Norwegian and Allied training operations,” intelligence unit chief Morten Haga Lunde said when presenting the report.
"Jamming also poses a threat to, among other things, civilian air traffic and peacetime police and health operations."
Norway has repeatedly raised the issue with Russian authorities and is cooperating with other Nordic countries to gather as much information as possible, Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen said.
"It's important...to make it clear that this is unacceptable," he told TV2 Nyhetskanalen.
In November, neighboring Finland summoned Russia's ambassador to Helsinki to respond to accusations that Moscow disrupted geolocation signals in its territory during Trident Juncture drills.
Moscow dismissed the allegations as baseless.