Putin endangers the airspace over Europe: Disruption affects military and civilian aircraft

The madness is affecting military and civilian planes – including planes that people take on vacation, according to the German newspaper.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they have been noticed increasingly frequent outages in global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) such as GPS in the Baltic Sea regionand incidents have been increasing for several weeks.

The most famous case recently happened when British Defense Minister Grant Shapps flew from Great Britain to Poland on March 13. Then a break in the GPS signal was noticed, just as the Royal Air Force plane was flying past the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

A British government spokesman later said that the safety of the aircraft had not been compromised and that “it is not uncommon for aircraft to experience GPS interference near Kaliningrad.”

Two different types of disturbances were observed in the Baltic Sea region:

In addition to GNSS-dependent systems, aircraft also have other navigation devices, including radio navigation or inertial navigation systems.

“GPS spoofing is a serious nuisance”

– GPS signal spoofing is a serious nuisance the safety of civil aviation and a threat to the safe operation of civil aircraft – said the Lufthansa spokesperson to the aero.de portal.

The English “The Sun” writes that it is only in the eight months to the end of March, 2,309 Ryanair flights were either affected by disruption or tampering GPS-a. Some aircraft had to avoid phantom obstacles due to inaccurate data.

– Ongoing interference with the global navigation satellite system is likely of Russian origin and is based on disturbances in the electromagnetic spectrum – the spokesman of the German Ministry of Defense told Bill.

However, these disruptions are unlikely to affect the functionality of the Bundeswehr brigade that will soon be stationed in Lithuania.

– Military structures do not only rely on GPS, but are designed to be redundant – said the spokesman.

Why is Russia making these disturbances?

Why is Putin obstructing and endangering European airspace, the German newspaper asks.

One explanation is that the Russian military could use this to test the protection of its infrastructure against enemy missiles – like drones or cruise missiles.

The Russian armed forces are constantly testing new electronic warfare systems in the Kaliningrad enclave, including the R-330Zh, the Borisoglebsk-2 and possibly the very powerful Tobol.

Frequent GNSS interference in the Baltic Sea region is also noticeable in the maritime sector. Danish and Swedish media have repeatedly reported on captains who noticed a malfunction in the GPS signal.

– In the event of a malfunction, boaters must use other navigational options such as radar, maps and compasses – explains Dorin Toma, responsible for the area of ​​navigation and communication systems at the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH).

The new developments should solve recurring problems, says Toma.

– BSH is cooperating with other actors on development that will significantly improve immunity to GNSS receiver interference – she added.

This would also open up the possibility of bypassing and suppressing interference in GNSS reception using new technologies.

Disturbances also observed in other regions

Disturbances in the GNSS signal can also be observed in other regions. For example, in large parts of Israel, especially on its northern border, the GPS signal is jammed, but as a purely protective measure against a rocket attack.

Even in cities like Moscow or some occupied areas in Ukraine, GNSS signals are jammed again and again.

However, Kaliningrad is not threatened by acute artillery fire, and jamming signals appear not only during large-scale military exercises, but are becoming more frequent – and therefore disrupt even the navigation of ordinary people who rely on GPS.

– Disruption of civil aviation and maritime traffic and private navigation in the region, from pizza delivery to the postman, is a hostile act and should be avoided – defense expert Markus Faber told Bild.

– The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should also put this topic on the agenda of the Baltic Council – he concluded.

(Bild, Telegraph)