Image: Typical Offshore Platform – Shutterstock
What’s New: Ukraine destroying another Russia facility that interfered with GPS transmissions.
Why It’s Important: Ship navigation and safety systems like AIS use GPS. Russia has been disrupting GPS signals in the Black Sea for years. Maritime Executive published about our research in 2017. And our member C4ADS did a more complete report report in 2019.
What Else to Know: In November 2023 Ukraine destroyed a Russian building on shore that housed a jamming system. The system was turned off at the time, presumably because the Russians also use satnav, and Ukrainian forces used a GPS-guided bomb.
Ukraine Destroys an Offshore Platform Used for GPS Spoofing
Published Aug 11, 2024 3:41 PM by The Maritime Executive
Last week, the Ukrainian Navy launched an operation to fight back against Russian GPS spoofing – with force. According to a spokesperson, Ukraine’s military attacked and destroyed an idle gas platform off Crimea, which Russian units had used as a broadcasting station for GPS interference equipment.
“The occupiers used this location for GPS spoofing to endanger civilian navigation. We cannot allow this,” said Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk. “Half a day before the strike, the enemy had placed equipment and military personnel on the platform. No civilians were there, and the platform was not performing its regular functions.”
Pletenchuk emphasized that Ukraine would not have struck the installation if it were still functioning as a civilian facility. He told local media that this was not the first time that Ukraine had destroyed an offshore jamming installation, and that Russia was using the equipment in an attempt to disrupt Ukrainian grain shipping.
