Russian submarines and GPS jamming: The new reality for Baltic cruisers

March 7, 2026

Written by Editor

Image: Shutterstock

What’s new: A maritime report and perspective we don’t usually hear from – the yachting world.

Why it’s important: This article provides a very personal and relatable account of being bullied in the Baltic by Russian forces. It also shows how GNSS interference is a part of broader geopolitical efforts to intimidate and exert influence.

What else to know:

  • Baltic nations and Iceland have vowed stricter enforcement against shadow (mostly Russian sponsored or serving) fleets that do not broadcast their correct positions. This was, at least in part, a response to extensive Russian jamming and spoofing in the region. – It is hard to imagine them confronting Russian naval vessels, though, even if those vessels were the source of GNSS interference.
  • The UK/France eLoran system will not serve the Baltic unless other nations join in.
  • To answer the author’s question: “Yes, this is the new normal.”

 

Russian submarines and GPS jamming: The new reality for Baltic cruisers

March 3, 2026

Russia’s ‘grey zone’ activity in the Baltic, from GPS interference to aggressive shadowing, is unsettling sailors. Will this be the new normal, asks Elaine Bunting?

“Look, Gerd… what is that? Is it a boat? Is it moving?”

Anke Schekahn was on watch with her husband, sailing their Malö 40 Emaloca from Władysławowo in northern Poland, to Klaipėda in Lithuania, on their way to Estonia early in the summer of 2025. In the far distance was the coast of Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave wedged between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.

The German couple were transiting through Russia’s Exclusive Economic Zone, but outside the 12-mile territorial limit, when she saw a strange looking silhouette on the horizon.

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