Russian satellites have been causing GPS disruption across Europe, scientists claim | World News

A network of Russian satellites has caused brief disruptions to GPS signals across Europe on perhaps dozens of occasions since 2019, new research suggests.

GPS jamming has become a routine irritant over the past few years, and was blamed for a Ukrainian drone exploding at a Romanian port on Friday.

Militaries in various parts of the world regularly use GPS jamming and spoofing to protect against drone attacks – however this is typically localised disruption affecting specific geographic areas.

The incidents highlighted in a new scientific paper are among the first times such disruption has been known to originate from space – and it could have far-reaching implications.

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Inside the soundless chamber where the UK tests GPS jamming

Moscow has repeatedly denied carrying out GPS jamming.

The research was carried out by respected global navigation satellite system (GNSS) expert Todd E Humphreys, head of the Radionavigation Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, and others.

In the paper published on Friday, the scientists say disruption to GPS signals has been detected at stations across Europe, Greenland and Canada simultaneously.

Disruption is typically between three and five seconds long and data suggested “a single source per event”, the paper says.

It adds: “The affected terrestrial receivers span a geographic area so large that no single ground-based or aircraft-based source could reach them all; hence the space-based origin hypothesis.”

Since 2019, the paper identified 75 days that saw at least one “wide-area transient GNSS interference event”.

Disruption predominantly occurred on weekdays and during business hours.

This, the paper says, “suggests human involvement” because a purely random phenomenon would appear at more varied times.

Read more:
The dark art of GPS jamming in the Iran war
RAF jet flying defence secretary has signal jammed

After analysing which satellites were in the area at the times that disruption was detected, the paper draws a significant conclusion.

It says the data is able to “confidently identify the source” and reveals this to be “a small constellation of Russian satellites in Molniya (‘lightning’) orbits”.

The paper stops short of saying that the GPS disruption is being done on purpose, adding: “If deliberate, it portends a qualitative escalation in GNSS interference.”

The New York Times has reported that senior US Air Force officials have been briefed on the interference, “according to a person familiar with the briefing who spoke on the condition of anonymity”.

“The person confirmed that the interference was occurring and that the Russian satellite network was responsible, but didn’t specify the quantity of incidents or the intent,” the newspaper reported.