GPS signal jamming by Russia has hindered air traffic in Finland and nearby areas recently. It has raised questions about whether Russia can try to disrupt Finnish society more broadly.
GPS is a satellite positioning system that can be used, for example, for navigation and time synchronization. Mobile phones also locate themselves using GPS.
What is the Russian GPS jamming about?
Russia, which is waging a war of aggression in Ukraine, uses GPS jamming to protect its own targets from missiles, drones and other weapons that use satellite navigation. This is what an electronic warfare expert says Petri Kuparinenwhich works Electronic Warfare Guild as chairman.
Russia’s interference has been seen in aircraft navigation systems. Due to the harassment, Finnair suspended its flight to Tartu, Estonia for a month at the end of April.
Watch the video from Tartu airport:
Jamming prevents GPS-based landing in bad weather at those fields near the Russian border that do not have an approach system independent of GPS jamming. There was no traditional method of approach on the pitch in Tartu.
– Why is the matter raging now in such large proportions, when it could just as well have been restored to air traffic control and the instrument landing equipment put back into use earlier. It would have been the best demonstration to the Russians that things are known and they will be fixed, Kuparinen tells .
He states that the GPS interference of civil flights is more embarrassing than dangerous. In addition to GPS, machines can usually navigate with several other systems.
The image below shows how aircraft GPS jamming is implemented:
“Russia’s goal is to incite fear”
In Estonia, Russian GPS interference began to be detected a little over a year ago, says the head of the ICDS security program of the Estonian International Defense Research Center Marek Kohv.
– At that time, the harassment was maybe a few hours a day. Now it seems to be almost all the time.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia has confirmed that the harassment comes from Russia in the vicinity of the cities of St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad and Pskov.
Tartu’s harassment probably originates from the area of Pskov, located 70 kilometers from the Estonian border, where there are sites important to Russia and probably protected from harassment.
Kohv estimates that Russian GPS interference will increase in the future. According to him, there are two reasons for that.
– It is a cheap way for Russia to create fear, like other hybrid operations. Russia’s purpose is precisely to incite fear. At the same time, Russia is testing the reactions of the Estonian authorities.
Russia uses GPS jamming to protect its cities and targets from Ukrainian counterattacks.
– I would say that they are really satisfied with the inconvenience that it causes to the neighboring countries, Kohv says in a video interview to .
ICDS security program manager Marek Kohv commented on Russia’s GPS interference as follows:
Has Russia extensively disrupted civilian targets?
According to Kuparinen, Russia has refrained from other intentional interference at its borders with countries against which it is not at open war.
It would have become known if the satellite positioning jamming operation, which is crippling society on a large scale, had been carried out from the air somewhere in the world, he points out. Millions of people would have noticed.
In Ukraine, on the other hand, Russia has carried out jamming operations based on satellite positioning. According to Kuparinen, most of this activity has been kept secret.
– Ukraine is very carefully and wisely silent about all the effects that Russia can achieve through interference. Telling about it would be direct guidance that when you do this, this is how it affects us.
According to Kuparinen, Russia has disturbed civil society in Ukraine by spying and cutting off mobile phone and satellite phone connections.
– Russia has also forcibly sent information warfare messages to mobile phones via text messages about jamming planes and targeted the jamming in various ways against society’s technical systems.
A return to the old map days is a threat
Russia or any other party causing interference could create fundamental confusion through interference if navigation and accurate time were lost.
Then we would go back to the old days of paper maps, says Kuparinen.
– Everyone can imagine how it could have an impact in the broadest sense. In this case, all commercial equipment would suffer from interference hundreds of kilometers away.
Kuparinen estimates that logistics, money transfer, data transmission networks and rescue and other official activities that use satellite time and positioning can be internationally disturbed activities.
Some countries have built their systems better and protected themselves better than others, says Kuparinen. However, these matters are kept strictly secret in Finland as well as in other countries.
– You shouldn’t say anything about your abilities and arrangements in public. That is exactly what Russia would hope for.
According to Kuparinen, it is very difficult to assess in which situation Russia could begin to disturb the targets of civil society.
– If civil society is targeted with such an action, it probably already gives the right to defend itself against the action. Then we are already quite close to the use of military force or the threat of it.
What else can Russian harassment forces do?
Electronic warfare is one of the weapons of the Russian army. There are plenty of troops and systems.
– It is used to paralyze the opponent’s systems and also to protect against the corresponding ability of foreign powers.
According to Kuparinen, every military district in Russia has an electronic warfare brigade, and the army’s high command also has its own. The Navy and some forces have their own electronic warfare centers.
– It is a nationally managed activity. Jamming of satellite positioning can be turned on in a part of the country.
This is how Russia acts, for example, in the event of a missile or drone attack on Ukraine, in which case it increases the amount of interference.
The armies of Western countries also have their own jamming forces, but in Russia, the activity has been developed strongly in recent decades.
Vulnerable to interference are radars, electronic intelligence equipment, message connections, satellite connections and control connections of drones.
“We should pay attention to preparation”
Society and organizations should pay attention to being prepared for harassment, says Kuparinen.
– Everyone can think how it would be affected if there was no exact time and place in use. Preparation starts from understanding how hugely important this is for society.
According to Kuparinen, organizations should assess how dependent they are on satellite time and location information. He recommends backup methods by which operations can continue in the event of disruptions.
Kuparinen reminds that other than governmental entities can also be behind the disturbances.
– The situation is not necessarily related to the activities of a state, but criminals can also be behind it. Jamming commercial GPS is easy. The means are so well known today that there are an awful lot of possibilities.
GPS is a satellite positioning system developed by the US Department of Defense. The GPS abbreviation comes from the English words Global Positioning System, or global positioning system in Finnish.
In the system, satellites in Earth orbit transmit a signal that can be used for positioning. Devices that utilize GPS positioning include smartphones and navigators.
There are two types of GPS interference. Another way is to send an “empty” jamming signal, which prevents the correct signal from being received and the GPS device is then unable to locate. Another way is to send a fake signal that leads to an error in positioning.