Baltic states warn of disaster risk due to Russian GPS jamming
Kyiv • UNN
Over the weekend, Baltic ministers warned of the risk of an air disaster due to GPS jamming blamed on Russia, after two Finnish flights were forced to turn around midway due to interference with navigation signals.
Baltic ministers have warned that GPS jamming blamed on Russia poses a risk of air disasters after interference with navigation signals forced two Finnish flights to turn around midway, the Financial Times reports, according to UNN.
Details
Over the weekend, the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania separately warned of the danger of GPS interference in the Baltic Sea region, which has increased in recent weeks.
On Thursday and Friday, two Finnair flights from Helsinki to the Estonian city of Tartu were forced to turn around and return to Finland due to GPS interference, as they were unable to safely reach their planned destination.
"If someone turns off your headlights while you are driving at night, it becomes dangerous. The situation in the Baltic region near the Russian border is now too dangerous to ignore," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told the Financial Times.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tahkna added: "We consider what is happening with GPS as part of Russia's hostile activities and will definitely discuss it with our allies. Such actions are a hybrid attack and a threat to our people and security, and we will not tolerate them.
Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže said: "We take these incidents seriously. Our relevant institutions are in contact with colleagues in other countries.
Experts estimate that tens of thousands of civilian flights have been affected by GPS interference in recent months. The signal jamming, which affects all GPS users in the area when it is operational, has also made it difficult to transmit signals used by boats in the Baltic Sea, leading to warnings from the Swedish Navy about the safety of navigation.
Experts say that there are several different sources of GPS interference: one is probably located in Kaliningrad, another is responsible for jamming in Estonia and Finland, and a separate source affects the far north of Norway and Finland.
Baltic officials discuss GPS jamming with allies and call on Russia to stop putting civilian aircraft at risk.
Marko Mikkelson, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament, said: "Allies should not look on indifferently as Russia jams GPS signals and thereby jeopardizes international air traffic.
According to experts, GPS jamming is easy to do with cheap equipment.
No country has acknowledged its involvement in jamming signals in the Baltic region, but officials in the region have said there is no doubt that Russia is behind the jamming from both its mainland and its exclave of Kaliningrad, located between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.
The official said that one theory is that Russia is trying to protect Kaliningrad from potential attacks by Ukrainian drones.
AddendumAddendum
In March, the United Kingdom confirmedthat a government plane carrying Defense Minister Grant Shapps lost its GPS signal near Kaliningrad as it flew home from Poland.
