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Finland says its GPS was disrupted during NATO's biggest war games in years, and it's pointing the finger at Russia

Finland and Norway both reported disruptions to their GPS signals during the final days of Trident Juncture, NATO's biggest exercise in years.

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin after their summit in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018.
  • GPS signals in Norway and Finland were disrupted in late October and early November.
  • The disruptions took place as NATO carried out a massive military exercise across the region.
  • Some, including Finland's prime minister, suspect Russia was up to something.

Finland's prime minister said on Sunday that GPS signals in the country were intentionally disrupted during NATO military exercise in the region over the past few weeks and the culprit could have been Russia.

sh air-navigation services issued a warning for air traffic on November 6 due to a large-scale GPS interruption in the north of the country. Norway posted a similar warning about loss of GPS signals for pilots in its own airspace at the end of the October.

The NATO exercise, called Trident Juncture, ran from October 25 to November 7.

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Sipila, who is a pilot, said the goal of such interference would be to demonstrate the culprit's ability to do so and that the incident would be treated as a breach of Finland's airspace.

Finland is not a NATO member, but it took part in Trident Juncture, which NATO officials said was the alliance's largest exercise in decades. Forces from 31 countries — all 29 NATO members, Finland, and Sweden — participated in the exercise, which took place close to Russian borders in an area stretching from the Baltic Sea to Iceland.

The exercise involved some 50,000 troops, tens of thousands of vehicles, and dozens of ships and aircraft. While much of the activity was based in central and southern Norway, fighter jets and other military aircraft used airports in northern Norway and Finland.

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Finland shares an 830-mile border and a fraught history with Russia. In recent years, Helsinki has moved closer to NATO but stopped short of joining the alliance, in keeping with its history of avoiding confrontation with its larger eastern neighbor.

Russia has warned Finland and Sweden, which is also a close NATO partner but not an alliance member, against joining the defense bloc.

Reuters to this report.

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