New NATO Allies’ Arctic Laser Base Will Counter Russia and China

A new base being built by NATO countries in Greenland will use incredibly narrow laser beams to ensure fast and voluminous data download from satellites, as Western nations move to secure communications from disruption by adversaries such as Russia or China, the company behind the project told Newsweek.

The planned new Optical Ground Station in Kangerlussuaq in western Greenland, north of the capital Nuuk, is going up in a former U.S. military base and will use technology developed by Astrolight, a company from the Baltic nation of Lithuania, with support from the European Space Agency. Newsweeksought comment from the Greenlandic government and from the Danish foreign ministry.

Russia increasingly is challenging NATO states in the Arctic and the Baltic with "hybrid warfare" including jamming communications and cutting undersea cables that carry data from ground stations that use more traditional methods such as radio frequencies and fiber-optic lines. Lasers offer a powerful alternative as well as a backup.

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