NATO: Russia jammed GPS signals during exercise with US troops

JacksinPA · Nov 14, 2018

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/...ed-gps-signals-during-exercise-with-us-troops

NATO believes Russian forces jammed GPS signals in Norway during a large-scale exercise with U.S. and NATO troops over the last month, CNN reported based on alliance and Norwegian government sources.

The NATO exercise, which took place in Norway between Oct. 16 and Nov. 7, was the alliance's largest exercise since the Cold War, according to the network. It was dubbed Trident Juncture and involved around 50,000 troops from 31 countries, including Finland and Sweden.
"Norway has determined that Russia was responsible for jamming GPS signals in the Kola Peninsula during Exercise Trident Juncture," NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu told CNN on Wednesday. "In view of the civilian usage of GPS, jamming of this sort is dangerous, disruptive and irresponsible."

The Pentagon declined to comment for CNN's report.
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Since GPS depends on radio signals received from orbiting satellites, a technically advanced country like Russia would certainly have developed the capability to jam the GPS receivers that our modern military depends on. While this jamming may have just been a test, using that capability may be premature, alerting the Western military to develop countermeasures against future jamming. A we've seen since WWII, every electronic weapon that is developed & used creates the incentive to develop an electronic countermeasure against it.

bearpoker · Nov 14, 2018

JacksinPA said:
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/...ed-gps-signals-during-exercise-with-us-troops

NATO believes Russian forces jammed GPS signals in Norway during a large-scale exercise with U.S. and NATO troops over the last month, CNN reported based on alliance and Norwegian government sources.

The NATO exercise, which took place in Norway between Oct. 16 and Nov. 7, was the alliance's largest exercise since the Cold War, according to the network. It was dubbed Trident Juncture and involved around 50,000 troops from 31 countries, including Finland and Sweden.
"Norway has determined that Russia was responsible for jamming GPS signals in the Kola Peninsula during Exercise Trident Juncture," NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu told CNN on Wednesday. "In view of the civilian usage of GPS, jamming of this sort is dangerous, disruptive and irresponsible."

The Pentagon declined to comment for CNN's report.
===================================================
Since GPS depends on radio signals received from orbiting satellites, a technically advanced country like Russia would certainly have developed the capability to jam the GPS receivers that our modern military depends on. While this jamming may have just been a test, using that capability may be premature, alerting the Western military to develop countermeasures against future jamming. A we've seen since WWII, every electronic weapon that is developed & used creates the incentive to develop an electronic countermeasure against it.

In the '70's the tactical ASA troops had a motto: In God we trust. All others we jam and deceive. This is the same game, just updated.

Tangmo · Nov 14, 2018

US does not announce its own cyber activities civilian and military against Russia and China especially and in particular. Neither do the Kremlin nor Zhongnanhai in Beijing make any obviously embarrassing announcements of US cyber attacks or EW actions and so on against them. The one thing we can be certain of in the absolute is that US and Pentagon, NSA etc do it and do it consistently. We just don't say. Neither to they say for the obvious reasons that it's difficult to speak with your pants down.

(ZhongNanHai is the huge walled Party-Government complex off Tiananmen Square.)

ZhongNanHai Party-Government Compound off Tiananmen Square Beijing.

Oozlefinch · Nov 14, 2018

JacksinPA said:
NATO believes Russian forces jammed GPS signals in Norway during a large-scale exercise with U.S. and NATO troops over the last month, CNN reported based on alliance and Norwegian government sources.

Then people wonder why most of the time I tend to downplay and laugh at the idea that the "next war" will be fought with high tech drones and smart missiles flying thousands of miles and landing within a postage stamp of their intended target.

Most of the military still works the same way it did 30+ years ago, and this is why. While civilians always love to grab onto the newest bit of technology and soon forget how to work without it, the military is still very much a "belt and suspenders" type of organization. And this is exactly why it operates that way.

GPS can go down, satellites can go down. Sun activity can reduce or eliminate the capability to communicate through the troposphere. But LOS and land line communications will still work, as will a map and compass.

Tangmo · Nov 15, 2018

Russia is a second tier country with a gdp less than that of Italy. The Italian navy can take out the Russian Black Sea fleet which is a fleet in name only. Do our light work for us.

One US cyber volley with EW, jamming and the like and Russia would have been better off to stick with the Luddites and their horse cavalry. It would have cost 'em a lot less to remain in WW II mode than try to keep up with the big guys.

One problem Russians have is their memory, i.e., since 1905 the Baltic Fleet has populated the bottom of the Tsushima Strait -- courtesy of the Japan navy. We see increasingly Putin is a lot of bluster losing its luster. Putin's in for much worse yet coming soon.

apdst · Nov 15, 2018

Line officers and NCO's better keep their land navigation skills in tip-top shape.

I predicted this in the 90's, when platoon leaders and platoon seargents were issued personal GPS units. I saw landnav skills become soft in no time. My platoon leader's GPS was destroyed when it was runned over by an armored vehicle. After that, he was lost as a goose.

I learned enough about them to demonstrate that I new how to use it and used it to confirm my calculations, but I stuck with my compass, map and protractor.

That technology is great, until it fails, then you're ****ed if you can't immediately transition to old school methods.

Newer isn't always better.

Thoreau72 · Nov 16, 2018

Isn't this to be expected?

Russia scrambled or otherwise disabled the electronics on the USS Donald Cook in the Black Sea several years ago. There were also several media reports last year of jamming of GPS signals in Syria.

Fledermaus · Nov 16, 2018

Tangmo said:
Russia is a second tier country with a gdp less than that of Italy. The Italian navy can take out the Russian Black Sea fleet which is a fleet in name only. Do our light work for us.

One US cyber volley with EW, jamming and the like and Russia would have been better off to stick with the Luddites and their horse cavalry. It would have cost 'em a lot less to remain in WW II mode than try to keep up with the big guys.

One problem Russians have is their memory, i.e., since 1905 the Baltic Fleet has populated the bottom of the Tsushima Strait -- courtesy of the Japan navy. We see increasingly Putin is a lot of bluster losing its luster. Putin's in for much worse yet coming soon.

Ummmm Not quite.

Russia Black Sea Fleet

1 X Slava Guided Missile Cruiser
1 X Kashin Guided Missile Destroyer
2 X Krivak Guided Missile Frigate
3 X Admiral Grigorovich Guided Missile Frigate
7 X Kilo or improved Kilo class subs
6 X Grisha ASW Corvette
5 X Guided Missile Corvettes
5 X Tarantul Missile Boat

vs.

Italy

2 X VSTOL Carriers
4 X Air Defense Destroyers
3 X General-purpose frigate
9 X Anti-submarine frigate
2 X Attack submarine
10 X Offshore patrol vessel

Not so cut and dried.

Tangmo · Nov 16, 2018

We recall that A2/AD mentioned in the quote and which I've referenced many times over time are Anti-Access / Area Denial platforms and systems designed to prevent an opponent coming within offensive weapons range of your territory and defenses. For Putin his military goes beyond defense however as Russia is attempting to assert control over the eastern Med. This would include the Suez Canal, the Dardanelles and Turkey among other areas Putin seeks to leverage control over outside of the Black Sea.

I cite Dr. Stephen Blank the USSR and post Soviet military analyst at the American Foreign Policy Council who until 2013 spent 25 years as Professor of National Security Studies at the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, PA...

And since the intervention in Syria in 2015 Moscow has started to fortify the missile, air defense, and submarine component of its Mediterranean Eskadra (Squadron) to impart to it a capability for denying the Eastern Mediterranean area and access to it by NATO fleets in the Mediterranean. These moves delineate a coordinated well-conceived sea denial strategy against NATO and other fleets in the Black and Mediterranean Seas.

This buildup not only interdicts foreign intervention in Syria’s civil war; it also places the entire Caucasus region along with Ukraine beyond the easy reach of NATO and Western air or military power. It also allows Russia to surround Turkey from the North, East and South with Russian forces and capabilities that can inhibit any Western effort to come to Turkey’s aid, should another conflict – however unlikely at this point- flare up between Russia and Turkey.

Russia’s capabilities also include the naval and A2AD capacity in the Caspian and the deployment of Russian ships with Kalibr’ or other cruise missiles there, and the possibility of introducing nuclear-capable systems like the Iskander into the Baltic Sea if not the Black Sea as well. Thus throughout the Black Sea we see a similar Russian contemptuous attitude as in the Baltic Sea to the other littoral states’ sovereignty and direct threats to both Ukraine and Romania’s economies, territories, and overall security.

The resemblances between Moscow’s naval probes in these waters as it simultaneously seeks to forge a network of bases and permanent deployments across the Levant and the Mediterranean oblige NATO and Ukraine to take a hard look at the Black Sea and maritime security more generally. This is especially the case when Russia’s newest deployments are going here and many analysts think this area rather than the Baltic is the most likely to come under direct Russian threat.

https://sldinfo.com/2018/07/nato-russia-and-the-black-sea/

It is a hard pill to swallow for the Putin Fanboyz to accept that the Russian navy and armed forces are not for defensive purposes only or principally. It is indeed the hard and fast dogma of the Fanboyz that Russia's military is defensive only. This is simply not true or accurate. Russia has always been an imperialist power and it still is one. The One in its region of the world.

Tangmo · Nov 16, 2018

Thoreau72 said:
Isn't this to be expected?

Russia scrambled or otherwise disabled the electronics on the USS Donald Cook in the Black Sea several years ago. There were also several media reports last year of jamming of GPS signals in Syria.

You'd need to confirm your USS Cook in the Black Sea nonsense from sources other than Putin himself or by people Putin owns.

As for jamming GPS signals, if it occurred, the source of the jamming would be destroyed in an actual conflict.

Fledermaus · Nov 16, 2018

Tangmo said:
We recall that A2/AD mentioned in the quote and which I've referenced many times over time are Anti-Access / Area Denial platforms and systems designed to prevent an opponent coming within offensive weapons range of your territory and defenses. For Putin his military goes beyond defense however as Russia is attempting to assert control over the eastern Med. This would include the Suez Canal, the Dardanelles and Turkey among other areas Putin seeks to leverage control over outside of the Black Sea.

I cite Dr. Stephen Blank the USSR and post Soviet military analyst at the American Foreign Policy Council who until 2013 spent 25 years as Professor of National Security Studies at the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, PA...

And since the intervention in Syria in 2015 Moscow has started to fortify the missile, air defense, and submarine component of its Mediterranean Eskadra (Squadron) to impart to it a capability for denying the Eastern Mediterranean area and access to it by NATO fleets in the Mediterranean. These moves delineate a coordinated well-conceived sea denial strategy against NATO and other fleets in the Black and Mediterranean Seas.

This buildup not only interdicts foreign intervention in Syria’s civil war; it also places the entire Caucasus region along with Ukraine beyond the easy reach of NATO and Western air or military power. It also allows Russia to surround Turkey from the North, East and South with Russian forces and capabilities that can inhibit any Western effort to come to Turkey’s aid, should another conflict – however unlikely at this point- flare up between Russia and Turkey.

Russia’s capabilities also include the naval and A2AD capacity in the Caspian and the deployment of Russian ships with Kalibr’ or other cruise missiles there, and the possibility of introducing nuclear-capable systems like the Iskander into the Baltic Sea if not the Black Sea as well. Thus throughout the Black Sea we see a similar Russian contemptuous attitude as in the Baltic Sea to the other littoral states’ sovereignty and direct threats to both Ukraine and Romania’s economies, territories, and overall security.

The resemblances between Moscow’s naval probes in these waters as it simultaneously seeks to forge a network of bases and permanent deployments across the Levant and the Mediterranean oblige NATO and Ukraine to take a hard look at the Black Sea and maritime security more generally. This is especially the case when Russia’s newest deployments are going here and many analysts think this area rather than the Baltic is the most likely to come under direct Russian threat.

https://sldinfo.com/2018/07/nato-russia-and-the-black-sea/

It is a hard pill to swallow for the Putin Fanboyz to accept that the Russian navy and armed forces are not for defensive purposes only or principally. It is indeed the hard and fast dogma of the Fanboyz that Russia's military is defensive only. This is simply not true or accurate. Russia has always been an imperialist power and it still is one. The One in its region of the world.

More Babble...

Thoreau72 · Nov 17, 2018

Tangmo said:
You'd need to confirm your USS Cook in the Black Sea nonsense from sources other than Putin himself or by people Putin owns.

As for jamming GPS signals, if it occurred, the source of the jamming would be destroyed in an actual conflict.

Sure mate, whatever you say. :lol:

NATO: Russia jammed GPS signals during exercise with US troops

aspiring cat lady