Norwegian police said in August 2024 that a critical cable was cut at the Evenes Air Station in Norway’s Far North, pictured. The incident is the latest in a string of sabotage incidents that appear to bear the imprint of Russian-backed actors. NORWEGIAN AIR FORCE
THE WATCH STAFF
An unknown saboteur cut a critical communications cable to a Norwegian air base in the Arctic, the latest incident of sabotage in the Nordic region. Norwegian police said the April 2024 incident has been turned over to state prosecutors and amounts to “an intentional and calculated action” at the Evenes Air Station, according to Norwegian newspapers. The news originally was reported by the Norwegian news site Fremover (Forward) in August. Sabotage incidents in the past year include the cutting of undersea cables and gas lines in the Gulf of Finland, which Finnish investigators say appears to be intentional and the work of NATO strategic competitors. The ship that dragged its anchor on the sea floor to sever the cables was a Chinese vessel linked to Russian interests. This latest incident in Norway is another example of rising tensions and increased security risks in the Arctic.
The Evenes station is a key base for the Norwegian Air Force. Located north of the Arctic Circle, the base hosts Norway’s fleet of Poseidon-8 maritime surveillance aircraft as well as F-35s, according to The Barents Independent, a Norwegian newspaper. Norwegian police don’t yet have a suspect in this latest incident, but investigators believe the cutting of the cable outside the base was intentional, the newspaper reported, citing Fremover.
Aside from the Balticconnector pipeline incident in 2023, NATO countries have repeatedly warned that suspected sabotage incidents bear the imprint of Russian-backed actors. In July 2024, CNN reported that U.S. bases in Europe were put on high alert after intelligence indicated Russia-based actors were planning attacks against U.S. personnel and infrastructure. In Norway, several acts of suspected sabotage occurred in 2021 and 2022 against underwater cables near the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic.
The Evenes Air Station dates back to the Cold War era, but it was shuttered for nearly 20 years until the Norwegian Air Force reopened it as a quick-reaction base in 2012. In addition to its aircraft squadrons, Evenes hosts air defense units with NASAMS surface-to-air missiles and elements of the Norwegian Cyber Defense Force and the Norwegian Armed Forces Logistics Organization. Subsequent upgrades to the runways and other infrastructure in the early 2020s increased the operational capacity of the base, which hosted the U.S. Marine Corps, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron VMFA-542 in February 2024, just two months before the sabotage incident.
In June 2024, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described what the alliance identified as “a surge of sabotage, cyber-attacks, instrumentalized migration, and other hostile actions by Russia.” Stoltenberg urged more “increased intelligence exchange, enhanced protection of critical infrastructure, including undersea and in cyberspace, and further restrictions on Russian intelligence operatives” to stymie Russia’s “hybrid operations” campaign, which has also been deployed in Germany and Finland, prompting Helsinki to close its land border with Russia. Russian-backed sabotage and other hybrid operations won’t deter NATO from supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, which began with the 2022 invasion, he said.