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What’s New: This article helps put Russia’s interference with GPS in a larger context.

Why It’s Important: “Grey zone” conflicts are still conflicts and do harm. They can also lead to shooting wars, sometimes despite the intent on both sides to avoid open warfare.

What Else to Know:

• It’s not just Russia. It’s China and others also.
• This kind of grey zone activity has been steadily increasing, especially with GPS disruption. Sooner or later something significantly bad is going to happen.

From the article:

In recent months, Russia has been accused of interfering with GPS navigation systems, causing havoc on commercial airline routes. As a result, flights from Helsinki to Tartu, Estonia, ground to a halt for a month in April.

Melanie Garson, an international security expert at University College London, said it was part of Russia’s “gray zone” campaign against the West, which involves covert actions that fall below the threshold of open warfare.

“Russia has long been developing this capability and it is currently a cheap and effective way of malicious gray-zone interference,” said Garson.

“As we increase our reliance on connectivity and space data in everything from agriculture to food delivery, disrupting national and economic security through interfering with subsea cables and GPS becomes increasingly effective,” she added.

• Russia is likely mapping underwater internet cables, a NATO official said.
• The country is also believed to be behind flight GPS interference.
• It’s signaling it could wreak havoc with the West’s electronic infrastructure, experts say.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, issued a stark warning in June.

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