FLASH
Shkruar nga Charles Clover & Chris Cook
You should always carry a map in your vehicle.
A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was diverted off course this week due to interference with the plane's GPS and had to hover over the runway of a Bulgarian airport for several minutes before the pilot landed the plane with the help of paper maps.
Was the plane deliberately targeted? That question “is better asked of the Russians,” said commission spokeswoman Arianna Podesta.
Von der Leyen was one of the high-profile individuals caught up in the jamming of GPS navigation signals around the Baltic countries and Eastern Europe. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, GPS interference has affected large areas of Europe, Ukraine and Russia, causing chaos with GPS-guided weapons and civilian navigation.
How does GPS blocking work?
GPS satellites work by transmitting position and time data in continuous broadcasts from orbit. Receivers in vehicle satellite navigation, aircraft flight systems, and even precision weapons decode these signals from multiple satellites to calculate their position in space.
Since these signals are weak, sent from medium Earth orbit, they are easy to jam. A transmitter near the receiver can jam it by simply transmitting a stronger signal on the same frequency to drown out the GPS transmission.
In war, jamming these signals can ground planes and drones and prevent weapons from reaching their targets.
“Precision-guided munitions are severely affected, smart bombs are silenced by GPS spoofing and jamming. Small drones regularly face spoofing and jamming. There are many possible solutions for navigation. But nothing is as cheap, globally accessible and complete as GPS/GNSS ,” said Todd Humphreys, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
GNSS is the general term for global navigation satellite systems, while GPS is the specific name for the American system. Russia’s GNSS system is called Glonass, while China uses Beidou. Financial markets, energy grids, and telecommunications all rely on GPS to function, and disruptions or errors spread throughout their systems. Large-scale GPS interference is already disrupting the smooth operation of everything from daily travel to national security near conflict zones, and could one day become a global problem.
What happened to von der Leyen's plane?
Pilots reported that the GPS of a private plane carrying von der Leyen had encountered interference during landing at Plovdiv airport in Bulgaria on August 31. Russia denied involvement, although a “heat map” of GPS interference affecting aircraft instruments by GPSJam.org shows Bulgaria and much of the Black Sea region as a hot spot for interference.
But, unusually, the transponder on board von der Leyen’s plane appears to have been able to determine the plane’s position and transmit it throughout the incident. The plane’s location was reported accurately and consistently on flight-tracking websites because its so-called Automatic Surveillance-Dependent-Broadcast (ADS-B) system appeared to be unaffected.
"It's strange and I don't have a good explanation for it ," said Tom Withington, an electronic warfare expert at the Royal United Services Institute.
However, something seems to have gone wrong on the plane. Radio traffic recordings posted online by an open-source researcher show the pilots discussing “some issues with the GPS scanner” with air traffic controllers, meaning they had to take an “unconventional” approach.
"If the pilots changed course due to signal jamming, it is almost certain that both GPS receivers used in the flight management system were jammed. Pilots do not change course for no reason ," Humphreys said.
Experts pointed out that the GPS receiver used to fly the plane and the one used to transmit its position via ADS-B are separate. Humphreys said it was possible that the receiver used to transmit its position had proven more resistant to jamming.
Why are GPS signals being blocked in the region?
Both Russia and Ukraine use a range of electronic warfare weapons to neutralize the other side's drones and precision-guided munitions, according to a senior UK military official, who described Ukraine as "a sea of electronic jamming."
This jamming has spread beyond Ukraine's borders and has affected much of Eastern Europe and the Baltic region. Plane pilots now consult "heat maps" of potential GPS interference before taking off.
Military experts accuse Russia of harassing NATO aviation from a base in Kaliningrad, and in 2024, two Finnair flights were forced to turn back to Finland due to GPS jamming. Meanwhile, civilian aircraft in the Black Sea region, such as von der Leyen's plane, have been hit by an increase in GPS outages due to apparent jamming, which could come from Russian-occupied Crimea.
Ndërhyrësit rusë variojnë nga antenat masive dhe stacionare Tobol që mund të bllokojnë sinjalet në zona të mëdha të Evropës, deri te grupet e luftës elektronike Zhitel ose Krasukha të montuara në kamionë që mbrojnë njësitë e këmbësorisë.
Erik Kannike, drejtor strategjik për kompaninë estoneze të teknologjisë SensusQ, tha se sistemi rus Tobol do të ishte i aftë të synonte një lidhje të vetme satelitore pa ndërprerje më të gjera. Zona të tjera konflikti kanë parë një trend të ngjashëm. Sipas një dokumenti të shkruar bashkërisht nga Humphreys, rreth 50,000 sulme false ndaj aeroporteve në Lindjen e Mesme në vitin 2024, të cilat bënë që avionët të lexonin gabim vendndodhjet e tyre, kanë origjinën me shumë mundësi nga Aeroporti Ein Shemer në Izraelin verior.
A po rezulton bllokimi efektiv?
Shumë armë të furnizuara nga SHBA-të në Ukrainë që mbështeten në GPS, të tilla si raketat Himars dhe predhat e artilerisë Excalibur të drejtuara nga GPS, kanë ndaluar së funksionuari kryesisht për shkak të bllokimeve ruse.
"Në thelb nuk ekziston më diçka e tillë si GPS. Në fushën e betejës, GPS si një mjet i besueshëm navigimi është zhdukur në thelb", tha Andriy Zvirko, kreu i strategjisë për Sine Engineering, një kompani ukrainase komunikimi dhe navigimi me dronë.
Një nga problemet specifike për Ukrainën, sipas Withington, është se frekuenca e koduar GPS e NATO-s - rezistente ndaj ndërhyrjeve - mbahet e fshehur për të parandaluar rrjedhjet në Rusi.
Përdoruesit civilë, përfshirë linjat ajrore, nuk mund të hyjnë në të, dhe madje edhe sinjalet e koduara mund të bllokohen nga sistemet e përparuara.
Megjithatë, bllokimi është energji-intensive dhe i vështirë për t'u mbështetur, dhe Rusia dhe Ukraina po dërgojnë me sukses raketa dhe dronë në territorin e njëra-tjetrës pavarësisht ndërhyrjeve. Lufta elektronike i ka detyruar të dyja palët të inovojnë me shpejtësi, duke përdorur antena adaptive dhe duke kërcyer në frekuencat e radios. Shumë sisteme më të reja armësh mund të përdorin të paktën dy sisteme udhëzimi përveç GPS-it.
Këto përfshijnë pasardhësit me teknologji të lartë të xhiroskopëve të përdorur në avionët e hershëm për navigim inercial. Një teknologji tjetër navigimi është "udhëzimi optik", i cili përputh hartat satelitore 3D me terrenin.
“Pavarësisht viteve të tëra kërkimesh, askush nuk ka gjetur një zëvendësim për GPS-in që është i lirë, i arritshëm globalisht dhe gjithashtu ofron kohë të saktë, por jo të prekshëm nga ndërhyrjet dhe falsifikimi siç është GPS/GNSS”, tha Humphreys.
Më premtuese, tha ai, janë konstelacionet satelitore në orbitën e ulët të Tokës, të tilla si Starlink i Elon Musk, Kuiper i Amazon dhe Xona, një shërbim pozicionimi satelitor.
A mund të përdoret bllokimi për të synuar një aeroplan ose anije të caktuar?
Other official flights that have suffered GPS disruptions while flying near Russia include a plane carrying former UK defence secretary Grant Shapps in 2024 and two flights carrying German defence minister Carsten Breuer. Breuer said he did not know whether the jamming targeted his plane or was part of a wider campaign.
Experts say GPS jamming is not capable of distinguishing a single vehicle or aircraft. "Spot" jamming is directed against individual frequencies in a specific area, while "barrage" jamming targets a wider band to deny the enemy control and communications.
However, another tactic is GPS spoofing, or “manipulation,” which manipulates fake or real signals to deceive a receiver about its true position.
Unlike GPS jamming, which simply blocks signals, spoofing transmits fake signals that appear legitimate but contain false data.
"These could lead to very dangerous results ," said a senior NATO military official.
Counterfeiting of this type may have been the cause of the sinking of the Liberian oil tanker Front Eagle in the Strait of Hormuz in June, as well as other incidents in which ships' GPS signals were jammed. Therefore, you should always carry a map in your vehicle./ Adapted from "Pamphlet" by "FinancialTimes"
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