Flight chaos in NATO countries amid GPS jamming

Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry and the Kremlin, which have not commented so far on the accusations, but officials in the Baltic states are convinced Moscow is responsible.

GPS jamming is easy to conduct with relatively cheap equipment and has increased in areas close to conflict zones, according to industry group OpsGroup, cited by Reuters.

One theory is that Russia was trying to protect its enclave Kaliningrad from potential attacks by Ukrainian drones. In recent months, GPS interference has also been reported in the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.

On Monday, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that the latest incidents showed how the Kremlin is pursuing a hybrid campaign directly targeting NATO states, including using GPS jamming and sabotaging military logistics."

The open-source intelligence X account Markus Johnson assessed that the GPS jammer affecting the Estonian flights is in Russia, roughly halfway between St. Petersburg and Narva, Estonia.

Experts have said that so far, there is no imminent threat to air safety with most airports having equipment to allow planes to land without GPS but the nuisance value of the disturbances could escalate.

"It's very clear that it's having an impact on NATO countries on our security so the effect is much broader and we can't pretend that it's just what comes part and parcel of living next to Russia—it shouldn't," said Ainge, who is associate director at the non-profit advisory group Independent Diplomat.

She supports a push for Article 4 of NATO's charter to be invoked, which officially calls for consultation over military matters when members' territorial integrity, political independence or security are under threat.

"Russia needs to see that our allies are taking this seriously," Ainge said. "Every time we let Russia get away with these sort of hostile, aggressive acts, it learns it can push those boundaries and next time it might not be GPS jamming—it might something else."

The Financial Times reported Monday that GPS jamming has affected "tens of thousands" of civilian flights. It said the causes were electronic warfare (EW) assets in Kaliningrad, as well as sources in Russia creating GPS disturbances in Estonia and Finland. A third source was impacting northern Norway and Finland, the paper added.

Russia has reacted angrily to the recent accession to NATO of Finland last year and Sweden last month. The countries' push for membership was in response to security concerns posed by Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Update 04/30/24, 7 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with further information and comment from Karoliina Ainge.

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