As of: April 6, 2024, 6:49 a.m
By: Michael Kister
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This map from OSINT account operator Markus Jonsson on X shows the most likely location of the Russian GPS jammer “Baltic Jammer”. © airplanes.live / @auonsson
Since the start of the Ukraine war, the GPS signal in the Baltics has often been disrupted. Now the Federal Ministry of Defense is blaming Russia.
Kaliningrad – Since the Ukraine war began in February 2022, private aircraft have increasingly reported that their GPS systems are not working properly over the Baltics. So far we have only been able to speculate as to why this is. Now, in response to a request from
T-Online,
the Federal Ministry of Defense said
: “The ongoing disruptions to the global navigation satellite system are most likely of Russian origin and are based on disruptions in the electromagnetic spectrum, including those originating in the Kaliningrad Oblast.”
The OSINT account Markus Jonsson has been investigating the phenomenon on X for a long time. OSINT stands for “Open Source Intelligence”, i.e. all information that is usually freely available on the Internet and only needs to be evaluated. There is probably a group of people behind the account, although Markus Jonsson is just a pseudonym. They collect cases in which the navigation systems of civil or military aircraft failed over the Baltic Sea region. On this basis, the OSINT group also comes to the conclusion that the jamming signal came from “Baltic Jammer”, a Russian broadcaster. They locate him in Kaliningrad. The X account goes on to say that he is probably there on the coast.
GPS interference over the Baltics and as far as Germany: Evidence points to Russia
The disturbances occur primarily over the Baltic states as well as over Poland and Sweden. Recently, however, the radius of the suspected Russian disruptive actions seems to be increasing: “sporadic” disruptions have been known in Germany’s northeastern airspace since December 2023, the Federal Ministry of Transport told the
German Press Agency
.
However, both the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Federal Network Agency assured that there were no known disruptions to shipping. According to
T-Online
, the reason for this could
be that the authorities only dealt with reports that concern German territory.
Russian GPS jamming shield to defend against Ukrainian drones?
Russia's interference with GPS signals could have defensive reasons. In order to protect themselves from Ukrainian drone attacks, real jamming shields are being set up around Russian cities. In general, Vladimir Putin's army is credited with having highly developed drone defense capabilities. It is possible that the signals sent by the alleged “Baltic Jammer” are precautions against possible Ukrainian drone attacks.
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It makes sense that this practice has intensified in recent months, as Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory are also becoming more frequent. However, there is “no acute danger” for pilots and ship captains whose GPS systems temporarily fail because they still use other navigation systems, according to the Aerospace Center’s assessment.