"The pandemic" is causing GPS interference.

When British Defence Secretary John Healey flew home from Estonia last week, the aircraft's satellite signals were jammed throughout the journey. This is not an isolated incident; jamming of navigational signals in maritime and air transport has become a persistent problem across the Baltic Sea region and is rapidly increasing in the Middle East.

A Royal Air Force Dassault Falcon 900LX once experienced satellite signal interference. Photo: aircharter.com.br

A series of worrying incidents

According to Foreign Policy, as Healey and his colleagues boarded a Royal Air Force Dassault Falcon 900LX after visiting troops stationed in Estonia, the aircraft lost contact, forcing the pilots to use the inertial navigation system – a technology that automatically determines the aircraft's position, speed, and direction of travel based on internal sensors without satellite or ground signals. This incident also caused the cockpit control panel to malfunction. Fortunately, the pilots eventually landed safely in England.

This is not an uncommon occurrence. European officials say that around 123,000 flights were affected by navigation interference in the first four months of 2025 alone. It's not just aircraft; ships are also affected by this interference. The situation has become so alarming that the International Civil Aviation Organization's Council condemned this interference last fall, but the situation has only worsened since then.

Darius Kuliešius, Deputy Director of Lithuania's communications authority, said that since the beginning of 2025, Russia has increased the number of fake GPS antennas from 3 to 36. This situation is also spreading to other parts of the world . “We are seeing navigation jamming in the Black Sea, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Oman, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Ships are not receiving signals or are receiving distorted signals,” said Ben Westcott, Director of Digital Services at the UK-based maritime security company Ambrey.

According to Raphael Montin, co-founder of the Swiss aviation security consulting firm SkAI Data Services, most navigation jamming incidents in the Baltic Sea region are believed to originate from Russia, while Israel and Iran are responsible for jamming signals in the Middle East. A report by the Israeli maritime intelligence data analysis firm Windward stated that on the first day of the Iran conflict alone, navigation jamming disrupted the navigation systems of more than 1,100 commercial vessels in the waters of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Oman, and Iran.

Numerous countermeasures

Navigation interference is causing significant difficulties for airlines, as the need to manually set and locate aircraft places an additional burden on pilots. This problem is also causing headaches for sailors. “The world has long relied on GPS as its primary navigation method. Now, sailors are forced to adapt to a new reality. Some sailors have recently called us for advice because they are unfamiliar with navigating without GPS,” said Westcott. Ground personnel are also facing similar challenges, as they cannot accurately determine the location of aircraft or vessels.

Furthermore, jamming and spoofing GPS signals can cause serious accidents. GPS interference is believed to have been the cause of the MSC Antonia container ship running aground off the port of Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) in May 2025, and previously the Meghna Princess bulk carrier running aground and hitting a reef near the port of Ust-Luga (Russia) in December 2024.

This context has forced governments to "get involved." For example, the European Union issued an action plan in March and will soon release guidance on how air traffic controllers and flight crews should operate in the event of GPS interference. Meanwhile, Norway has established three GPS interference monitoring stations and plans to add two more. DNK, a Norwegian maritime war risk insurance company, has launched an initiative to provide its customers with low-orbit satellite signals, which are far more resistant to disruption than conventional signals.

TRI VAN (Compiled)

Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/-dai-dich-gay-nhieu-gps-a206146.html