image: GPS interference in the Baltic on 13 March 2024 – GPSJam.org
What’s New: A plane with a senior UK government official flew near Kaliningrad. NOT NEW: Planes flying near Kaliningrad having trouble receiving GPS signals.
Why It’s Important:
- Sometimes it is good for government officials to experience things “regular people” experience.
- Perhaps the UK Defense Minister will think about how electronic warfare is warfare. And how Russia has been attacking NATO countries, aircraft, and ships for months.
- It was sort of newsworthy and helped increase public awareness of the on-going problem.
What Else To Know:
- Of course, this plane getting jammed isn’t unusual or special. It happens to pretty much every airplane in the Baltic.
- Aircraft have other means of navigating besides GPS.
- Sometimes GPS jamming can act like spoofing and draw other navigation instruments and the aircraft off course.
- GPS is used by the ADS-B aviation traffic and safety system. So when it is not available, both the efficiency and SAFETY of air traffic suffers.
- The UK recognizes the fragility and vulnerability of GPS and other GNSS signals. They have a 10 point plan to improve British PNT resilience.
Russia believed to have jammed signal on UK defence minister’s plane – source
LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) – Russia is believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an aircraft used by defence minister Grant Shapps to travel from Poland back to Britain, a government source and journalists travelling with him said on Thursday.
According to a government source and journalists, the GPS signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes while the plane flew close to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.
Mobile phones could no longer connect to the internet and the aircraft was forced to use alternative methods to determine its location, they said.
