GPS World

Tag: Lithuania

  • Spain’s defence minister’s aircraft latest to report GPS interference

    Spain’s defence minister’s aircraft latest to report GPS interference

    An A330 airplane carrying Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles experienced GPS interference while flying over Kalingrad, Russia, reports EU Today. The news outlet cites Spanish newspaper El Mundo as its source.

    Robles was flying to in an aircraft belonging to the Spanish Air and Space Force. It was is “subjected to an attempt to throw it off course using GPS” over Kaliningrad as Robles was travelling to the Šiauliai air base in Lithuania on Sept. 24.

    The pilot said incidents attempting to disorient pilots have been common for both commercial and military flights over Kaliningrad. Becausee this was a military craft, the plane was receiving instructions from a military satellite and the attempt failed.

    Reports of GNSS interference have increased across the Baltic and adjacent regions since 2022, the beginning of Russia’s war with Ukraine. 

  • Lithuanian port hit by GNSS interference

    Lithuanian port hit by GNSS interference

    Russia’s war with Ukraine continues to affect GNSS signal availability in the Baltic Sea, reports LRT News. Aircraft and ships near the Lithuanian seaport of Klaipėda are losing signals becausse of Russia’s efforts to shield its Kaliningrad exclave from potential airstrikes, said Saulius Skvernelis, speaker of the Lithuanian parliament.

    “The Russians are protecting the Kaliningrad region from potential air attacks,” Skvernelis told LRT TV. “This is not specifically intended to disrupt or harm our aircraft flying to Lithuania. It’s just that the protection zone extends beyond the Kaliningrad region’s borders, and the threat, the interference, is affecting our territory as well.”

    Skvernelis warned that this problem will persist across the region as long as the Kremlin continues its war in Ukraine.

    Thirteen European Union member states have called on the European Commission to respond to interference with GNSS in EU countries. In a joint letter, the countries stressed that GNSS interference cases are not random incidents but systematic and deliberate action by the Russian and Belarusian regimes aimed at destabilizing regional infrastructure, especially in the transport sector, reports LRT.

    “We can appeal to all EU countries and any institution, but it won’t help as long as Russia uses this kind of electronic protection for its military sites to defend itself against Ukrainian strikes,” Skvernelis said. “We must force Russia to end the war and then this problem will simply go away.”