The world¡¯s largest satellite ground station, on the Svalbard archipelago off Norway, is used by Western space agencies to gather vital signals from polar-orbiting satellites. This January, one of two fiber-optic cables on the Arctic seabed connecting Svalbard to the mainland was severed. Norway was forced to rely on a backup link.
In April 2021, another cable ¡ª one used by a Norwegian research laboratory to monitor activity on the Arctic seafloor ¡ª was ripped away.
¡°This could have happened by accident,¡± Norway¡¯s defense chief Eirik Kristoffersen said in response to the ruptures, which received little media coverage outside Norway. ¡°But the Russians are capable of cutting cables.¡±
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