Latest news with #Honko
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Finnish soldiers are going old school with paper maps so they're ready if an enemy shuts down GPS
Finnish soldiers are getting back to the basics — paper maps — to train for scenarios where GPS isn't an option. A Finnish officer told BI that GPS vulnerability is one of the lessons learned from Ukraine. The Ukraine war has featured a dramatic amount of electronic warfare tactics. Finnish soldiers are training with basic navigation tools — paper maps and compasses — to make sure they can operate in environments where enemy activity means GPS isn't available to them, a top military officer told Business Insider. Col. Matti Honko, the commanding officer of Finland's Guard Jaeger Regiment, said that an important lesson from Ukraine is that the satellite-navigation tool known as the Global Positioning System, or simply GPS, is vulnerable to interference. The Ukraine conflict has seen heavy electronic warfare on both sides of the battlefield. Kyiv and Moscow rely on tactics like signal jamming, GPS spoofing, and other methods of remote interference to confuse and disable enemy weaponry. GPS interference has caused problems for a range of combat systems, from cheap drones to sophisticated guided munitions. To ensure readiness for future conflicts where GPS isn't an option, the Finnish Guard jaegers are using paper maps like the ones commonly found in glove compartments for road trips in the days before GPS became the norm in cars and personal phones. "I think everyone has recognized the fact that GPS can be spoofed, and you might not be able to rely on it," Honko said during an interview on the sidelines of last week's Lively Sabre 25 exercise in southern Finland. The colonel said that Finland is not abandoning the use of GPS. Rather, soldiers are being taught not to rely exclusively on it and are learning how to check things like making sure a grid reference actually matches a map, as spoofed GPS data could be wildly out of sync with real-world situations. Honko said that this training is happening across the Finnish Army and likely within the country's navy and air force, too. He said that Finland's proximity to Russia forces it to train on GPS-denial scenarios because jamming is a frequent occurrence, possibly due to the air defenses in the nearby city of St. Petersburg. "I would just call it a reminder that this is real, actually," Honko said. "You can see for yourself that, yes, my GPS isn't working." Electronic warfare challenges are not exclusive to the war in Ukraine. In the Middle East, for instance, GPS interference has been a feature of Israel's conflicts with Iranian proxy groups. It has also been an issue in the turbulent Red Sea, where Western naval forces have spent over a year and a half defending shipping lanes from attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen. Militaries like Finland are closely watching the constantly developing electronic warfare practices and planning for scenarios where they may be tested in battle. And they're not alone, either. Defense industry companies are similarly making sure that their products are more survivable. One such example is Saildrone, an American company that makes uncrewed surface vessels in service with a handful of naval forces, including the US Navy. Richard Jenkins, Saildrone's founder and CEO, explained to BI in a recent interview that the company has integrated technology into its USVs, enabling them to work in environments where GPS and communications technology are compromised or unavailable. Some of the company's drones that the US military operates in the Middle East have been sailing in spoofed areas for months, he said. Jenkins said he believes this is the future of warfare. "I think in a real conflict, satellites will be the first thing to go entirely." He added that "everyone needs to work out how to survive without" satellites, GPS, and communications. And for militaries, that means not just new technologies but also making sure that basic skills are preserved. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
03-06-2025
- Business Insider
Finnish soldiers are going old school with paper maps so they're ready if an enemy shuts down GPS
Finnish soldiers are getting back to the basics — paper maps — to train for scenarios where GPS isn't an option. A Finnish officer told BI that GPS vulnerability is one of the lessons learned from Ukraine. The Ukraine war has featured a dramatic amount of electronic warfare tactics. Finnish soldiers are training with basic navigation tools — paper maps and compasses — to make sure they can operate in environments where enemy activity means GPS isn't available to them, a top military officer told Business Insider. Col. Matti Honko, the commanding officer of Finland's Guard Jaeger Regiment, said that an important lesson from Ukraine is that the satellite-navigation tool known as the Global Positioning System, or simply GPS, is vulnerable to interference. The Ukraine conflict has seen heavy electronic warfare on both sides of the battlefield. Kyiv and Moscow rely on tactics like signal jamming, GPS spoofing, and other methods of remote interference to confuse and disable enemy weaponry. GPS interference has caused problems for a range of combat systems, from cheap drones to sophisticated guided munitions. To ensure readiness for future conflicts where GPS isn't an option, the Finnish Guard jaegers are using paper maps like the ones commonly found in glove compartments for road trips in the days before GPS became the norm in cars and personal phones. "I think everyone has recognized the fact that GPS can be spoofed, and you might not be able to rely on it," Honko said during an interview on the sidelines of last week's Lively Sabre 25 exercise in southern Finland. The colonel said that Finland is not abandoning the use of GPS. Rather, soldiers are being taught not to rely exclusively on it and are learning how to check things like making sure a grid reference actually matches a map, as spoofed GPS data could be wildly out of sync with real-world situations. Honko said that this training is happening across the Finnish Army and likely within the country's navy and air force, too. He said that Finland's proximity to Russia forces it to train on GPS-denial scenarios because jamming is a frequent occurrence, possibly due to the air defenses in the nearby city of St. Petersburg. "I would just call it a reminder that this is real, actually," Honko said. "You can see for yourself that, yes, my GPS isn't working." Electronic warfare challenges are not exclusive to the war in Ukraine. In the Middle East, for instance, GPS interference has been a feature of Israel's conflicts with Iranian proxy groups. It has also been an issue in the turbulent Red Sea, where Western naval forces have spent over a year and a half defending shipping lanes from attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen. Militaries like Finland are closely watching the constantly developing electronic warfare practices and planning for scenarios where they may be tested in battle. And they're not alone, either. Defense industry companies are similarly making sure that their products are more survivable. One such example is Saildrone, an American company that makes uncrewed surface vessels in service with a handful of naval forces, including the US Navy. Richard Jenkins, Saildrone's founder and CEO, explained to BI in a recent interview that the company has integrated technology into its USVs, enabling them to work in environments where GPS and communications technology are compromised or unavailable. Some of the company's drones that the US military operates in the Middle East have been sailing in spoofed areas for months, he said. Jenkins said he believes this is the future of warfare. "I think in a real conflict, satellites will be the first thing to go entirely." He added that "everyone needs to work out how to survive without" satellites, GPS, and communications. And for militaries, that means not just new technologies but also making sure that basic skills are preserved.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How front-line NATO forces are training to operate and survive one of the Ukraine war's deadliest threats
The Ukraine war has seen a proliferation of drones on both sides of the conflict. NATO allies are closely watching the developing drone war and learning from the battlefield tactics. Military leaders from Finland and Poland told BI how their forces are training with drones. Finland and Poland — two front-line NATO allies that share borders with Russia — are experimenting with new ways of war using drones, military leaders told Business Insider, noting the radical changes unfolding in Ukraine. Col. Matti Honko, the commanding officer of Finland's Guard Jaeger Regiment, said that one of the main lessons from Ukraine is that there is increased transparency on the modern battlefield because of drones, satellites, and other means of surveillance. Building up forces has become much more challenging. Large troop concentrations now have to be assembled on the move, Honko explained to BI last week on the sidelines of the Lively Sabre 25 exercise in southern Finland, where dispersal and mobility were key focal points for the training. Soldiers are learning to listen for drones and what actions to take in response to reduce their exposure and vulnerability. "Whenever you hear a drone, you cannot know if it's your own or not. So you cannot be sure, because you cannot distinguish it from the sound," Honko said. "It means that you start what I would call: immediate air-cover procedures. You find shelter, you try to disperse yourselves, you try to avoid being detected." He said this also includes counter-drone and other defensive measures that should be taken. He declined to go into specifics about the training scenarios but stressed that they are not yet fully integrated into everyday drills. Cpl. Jimi Järnberg, a soldier of the 3rd Jaeger Company, a unit of the Finnish Army's Pori Brigade, told BI during Lively Sabre that uncrewed systems are excellent surveillance tools that can be used to avoid exposing humans to harm when gathering intel, but the Ukraine war also highlights the danger of turning drones into bombs. This type of weapon — a cheap, commercially available quadcopter drone that carries a small explosive payload, for example — is omnipresent on the battlefield in Ukraine. Both Kyiv and Moscow use them to deliver precision strikes on enemy troops, armored vehicles, and trenches. Drones are widely recognized as the future of war. In Ukraine, they are proving deadlier than artillery, with reports from the front lines indicating they are responsible for roughly 80% of Russian front-line losses. As the world watches these developments, Finland is not alone in recognizing the significance of this threat and integrating new drone tactics into its training. Brig. Gen. Michal Strzelecki, the commander of Poland's 6th Airborne Brigade, which participated in Lively Sabre, told BI that his forces are also experimenting with this technology. "We are in the early phase of that," the general said, adding that "we are trying to follow everything that is happening behind the border, like what the Ukrainians are doing." But it's difficult to keep up with the pace of innovation. Strzelecki said he wants to stay up to date, but new drone technology is emerging on the battlefield so fast that sometimes all he can do is observe the changes and wait for the right moment to act. "The war in Ukraine shows the significant role of the lower-level" drones, he explained. "That's something we are developing right now. We are training people how to operate them and waiting to implement the best version of that which will be the most suitable for our unit." He said Polish forces are training to use drones for different types of operations and were using them during Lively Sabre. Polish Capt. Bartosz Januszewski said his forces are using the Israeli-made Orbiter reconnaissance drone, but the country is also starting to develop smaller systems like the quadcopter-style drones that are running rampant in Ukraine. He told BI that Poland wants smaller drones for strike and reconassiance missions. And while the country recognized the need for drones before the Ukraine war, the conflict shows that this is the direction warfare is headed, sparking greater urgency in developing and fielding this tech. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
02-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Insider
How front-line NATO forces are training to operate and survive one of the Ukraine war's deadliest threats
Finland and Poland — two front-line NATO allies that share borders with Russia — are experimenting with new ways of war using drones, military leaders told Business Insider, noting the radical changes unfolding in Ukraine. Col. Matti Honko, the commanding officer of Finland's Guard Jaeger Regiment, said that one of the main lessons from Ukraine is that there is increased transparency on the modern battlefield because of drones, satellites, and other means of surveillance. Building up forces has become much more challenging. Large troop concentrations now have to be assembled on the move, Honko explained to BI last week on the sidelines of the Lively Sabre 25 exercise in southern Finland, where dispersal and mobility were key focal points for the training. Soldiers are learning to listen for drones and what actions to take in response to reduce their exposure and vulnerability. "Whenever you hear a drone, you cannot know if it's your own or not. So you cannot be sure, because you cannot distinguish it from the sound," Honko said. "It means that you start what I would call: immediate air-cover procedures. You find shelter, you try to disperse yourselves, you try to avoid being detected." He said this also includes counter-drone and other defensive measures that should be taken. He declined to go into specifics about the training scenarios but stressed that they are not yet fully integrated into everyday drills. Cpl. Jimi Järnberg, a soldier of the 3rd Jaeger Company, a unit of the Finnish Army's Pori Brigade, told BI during Lively Sabre that uncrewed systems are excellent surveillance tools that can be used to avoid exposing humans to harm when gathering intel, but the Ukraine war also highlights the danger of turning drones into bombs. This type of weapon — a cheap, commercially available quadcopter drone that carries a small explosive payload, for example — is omnipresent on the battlefield in Ukraine. Both Kyiv and Moscow use them to deliver precision strikes on enemy troops, armored vehicles, and trenches. Drones are widely recognized as the future of war. In Ukraine, they are proving deadlier than artillery, with reports from the front lines indicating they are responsible for roughly 80% of Russian front-line losses. As the world watches these developments, Finland is not alone in recognizing the significance of this threat and integrating new drone tactics into its training. Brig. Gen. Michal Strzelecki, the commander of Poland's 6th Airborne Brigade, which participated in Lively Sabre, told BI that his forces are also experimenting with this technology. "We are in the early phase of that," the general said, adding that "we are trying to follow everything that is happening behind the border, like what the Ukrainians are doing." But it's difficult to keep up with the pace of innovation. Strzelecki said he wants to stay up to date, but new drone technology is emerging on the battlefield so fast that sometimes all he can do is observe the changes and wait for the right moment to act. "The war in Ukraine shows the significant role of the lower-level" drones, he explained. "That's something we are developing right now. We are training people how to operate them and waiting to implement the best version of that which will be the most suitable for our unit." He said Polish forces are training to use drones for different types of operations and were using them during Lively Sabre. Polish Capt. Bartosz Januszewski said his forces are using the Israeli-made Orbiter reconnaissance drone, but the country is also starting to develop smaller systems like the quadcopter-style drones that are running rampant in Ukraine. He told BI that Poland wants smaller drones for strike and reconassiance missions. And while the country recognized the need for drones before the Ukraine war, the conflict shows that this is the direction warfare is headed, sparking greater urgency in developing and fielding this tech.
