Airlines Report Russian GPS Jamming In Four Regions

The Russian military's jamming of airline satellite navigation is likely collateral damage from the war, a French aviation official reportedly said.

Kimberly Johnson

Friday, April 01, 2022 at 03:43 PM ET

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While the jamming can be a distraction for pilots, airlines have procedures in place for when GPS signals are lost. [File photo: Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

Russia's military is jamming airline satellite navigation near the Black Sea, eastern Finland, Kaliningrad, and the Eastern Mediterranean, primarily as "collateral damage" from equipment designed to protect its troops.
This intensified jamming, attributed to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has led to significant disruptions for civil aviation, including rerouting, changed destinations, and an inability to perform safe landing procedures.
The situation is a "wake-up call" for Europe, highlighting the critical need for all countries to prepare and implement robust contingency plans for the potential loss of satellite navigation systems in aviation.

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According to a new report citing a French aviation official, Russia’s military is jamming airline satellite navigation near the Black Sea, eastern Finland and Kaliningrad, a small Russian province along the Baltic Sea located between Lithuania and Poland.

The satellite navigation disruption is being caused by Russian trucks with jamming equipment meant to defend Russian troops from GPS-guided munitions, Benoit Roturier, satellite navigation head of France’s civil aviation authority DGAC, told Bloomberg.