Russia's GPS Jamming 'Testing' NATO Ahead of Potential War: Official

Russia is disrupting satellite systems in the Baltic region in preparation for conflict with NATO, an Estonian military commander has said, as the head of a GPS security group called for the alliance to act to protect the system used by airlines, smartphones and weapons systems.

In January, jamming was detected in eastern and southeastern parts of NATO's newest member Finland amid reports from an open-source intelligence researcher that a "Baltic jammer" in Kaliningrad, Russia's Baltic Sea enclave, was responsible. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry and NATO for comment.

The Russian Defense Ministry has previously confirmed its EW units in Kaliningrad, which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania, had conducted exercises to disrupt radio and satellite signals.

On various days throughout January, GPS disruptions have been recorded in northern Poland, southern Sweden, Estonia and Latvia.

So far there is no proof Moscow was involved in the disruptions in January, but Russia has been accused of jamming GPS signals in northern Europe and its electronic warfare (EW) capabilities are used to disrupt drones and missiles in Ukraine during its full-scale invasion.

Martin Herem, commander of the Estonian Defense Forces, told Bloomberg, "someone is causing it and we think it's Russia" and that Moscow is "learning and testing" jamming capabilities ahead of risks of a future potential conflict with NATO.

He said that Moscow had shown its EW capabilities elsewhere, "not just in Ukraine and the Baltic countries," adding that Russia is "definitely quite strong in this."

Ed Mortimer, VP of government affairs at a geolocation services company NextNav, told Newsweek there are more instances of GPS or, more broadly, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), jamming and spoofing in Eastern Europe because of the war in Ukraine.

"Russia shared that they have been engaging in electronic warfare exercises, which highlights how GNSS interference can have a large geographic impact beyond a nation's borders," Mortimer said. "This can impact countries in significant ways—including a nation's critical infrastructure.

"The Black Sea has become an area of Russian military operations, and Romania has accused Russia of jamming GNSS there—increasing the risk of collisions," Mortimer added. GNSS interference also forces aircraft to fall back on older navigation techniques, and "in some cases, it can cause aircraft to take longer routes."

Dana Goward, president of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, which advocates for GPS security, wrote in an op-ed for Breaking Defense: "Such jamming presents a risk to thousands of commercial aircraft."

"As international pressure has so far failed to halt the interference, it's time for NATO to act—proportionally," he added.

He noted how public aircraft tracking databases have noted how aircraft over the Baltic region have faced interference in GPS signals and in some cases, GPS receivers have been electronically captured, or "spoofed" into showing the aircraft off their intended route.

In the op-ed published on Wednesday, Goward said the interference is part of Russia's response to increasing Western influence near its borders such as the Aegis anti-missile system activated in the north of Poland.

Frequency allocations for new satellites are managed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and he said that denial of new allocations to Russia, "seems appropriate and could be a good first step."

"More decisive and overt action must be taken to address this increasing problem before it results in significant loss of life or escalates into armed conflict directly involving NATO," Goward added.

Update 02/03/24, 5 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Ed Mortimer.