Security in Europe

Norwegian military professor: We are preparing for the wrong war

The defense receives enormous sums of money, but Europe is militarily superior to Russia and the ongoing major rearmament is for the wrong war, says Norwegian military strategy professor Tormod Heier to NRK.

A large-scale attack is the worst possible thing, but at the same time the least likely. The most likely threat, according to Heier, is instead hybrid sabotage actions and influence operations that will be met by the police.

– And they are currently not equipped at all for crisis management on the threshold of war, he tells NRK.

However, the war professor receives a rebuke from former defense chief Sverre Diesen, who believes that Heier is looking at the situation too “mathematically”.

– It is completely pointless to count how many divisions Spain has if they are not in place when it hits, Diesen tells NRK.

Russian craft spying on European satellites

Russian spy craft are believed to have intercepted a number of important European communications satellites in space, reports the Financial Times. According to European authorities, Russia may have gained access to sensitive information, but also acquired the ability to redirect the satellites and even crash them.

The two Russian craft, Luch-1 and Luch-2, are said to have been followed by Europe for several years as they carried out what are described as “repeated suspicious manoeuvres”.

According to the FT, large parts of the communication between the satellites and Earth are unencrypted because they are too old to be equipped with advanced encryption computers. The Russian space espionage program is described as one of the most advanced in the world.