The Norwegian Coast Guard has carried out inspection operations on two Chinese heavy-lift vessels that sought refuge during a storm near the strategic island of Andøya, amid widening concerns over foreign intelligence collection against critical defense infrastructure in the High North.
Coast Guard inspection off the Vesterålen archipelago
The Joint Headquarters of the Norwegian Armed Forces confirmed that twelve vessels recently sought shelter from severe weather off the Lofoten and Vesterålen archipelagos. Among them were two Chinese-flagged heavy-lift carriers: the Ya Qing Hai Yang and the Jian Yang Cheng He. Coast Guard personnel boarded and conducted a formal inspection on the first vessel and prepared to inspect the second, though Norwegian authorities declined to provide further operational details to the news outlet High North News.
The Ya Qing Hai Yang has drawn scrutiny from security analysts due to its operational history. This vessel, formerly known as Ocean 28, is linked to the transport of Chinese industrial equipment for Russia's sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project. Furthermore, the ship has a record of operating near sensitive European infrastructure; in late 2024, while sailing under its previous name, it displayed an irregular track by making a sudden sharp U-turn and repeatedly traveling back and forth in the waters directly outside Gossa island, the site of Nyhamna gas processing plant. Before moving westward along the Norwegian coast during the current voyage, it spent several days drifting near the Aynov Islands, less than 30 kilometers (16 nautical miles) from Russia's maritime border with Norway.
Strategic importance of Andøya defense hub
The location chosen for shelter places the vessels adjacent to Andøya, a focal point for NATO’s surveillance architecture in the Arctic. The island hosts the Andøya Spaceport and critical satellite infrastructure used to monitor submarine activity in the Barents Sea and manage polar orbit communications.
Norwegian counterintelligence services have frequently warned about the dual-use potential of civilian commercial shipping. In past assessment reports, the Police Security Service (PST) noted that commercial vessels, fishing trawlers, and research ships operating in northern waters can be utilized for hydrographic surveying and underwater acoustic mapping under the guise of commercial transit.
Heimevernet data breach and connected car security
The maritime surveillance operations coincide with the discovery of a separate data security breach involving domestic military logistics. During the Exercise Hovedstad military drill in September, the Norwegian Home Guard (Heimevernet) discovered that civilian rental cars leased to transport troops were actively logging operational data.
Due to a shortage of military vehicles, the service had leased electric cars from Hertz Norge, including Deepal models manufactured by the Chinese state-controlled Changan Automobile. Soldiers operating the vehicles discovered that the cars' internal systems had recorded and stored local video logs via integrated cameras and sensors. The stored data included footage of the movement of military personnel, specific transport routes, and alphanumeric gate codes typed by personnel to enter secure defense installations.
While the rental company stated that its operations comply with Norwegian and European privacy regulations, military officials confirmed that local logs were cleared but noted that automatic transmission of encrypted data to external servers via the vehicles' cellular links cannot be fully ruled out.
Featured image: a tactical vehicle patrols Oslo during Exercise Hovedstad. (Credits: Norwegian Armed Forces)
