A 63-hour-long marathon of GPS jamming attacks disrupted global satellite navigation systems for hundreds of aircraft flying through the Baltic region – and Russia is thought to be responsible

Russia is suspected of launching a record-breaking 63-hour-long attack on GPS signals in the Baltic region. The incident, which affected hundreds of passenger jets earlier this month, occurred amid rising tensions between Russia and the NATO military alliance more than two years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“We have seen an increase in GPS jamming since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine, and allies have publicly warned that Russia has been behind GPS jamming affecting aviation and shipping,” a NATO official told New Scientist. “Russia has a track record of jamming GPS signals and has a range of capabilities for electronic warfare.”

  • avater@lemmy.world
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    6 个月前

    Russia is really stretching this out, aren’t they. Maybe they need some proper ass kicking to fall back in line.

    At some point the west has to react.

    • bstix@feddit.dk
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      6 个月前

      Never mind Russia, I’d be happy with anyone making a “special military operation” on Putin’s whereabouts. NATO doesn’t have to fight Russia. They only need the head of the snake.

      • cmbabul@lemmy.world
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        6 个月前

        There is no way to convince me that the CIA, MI6, and/or Beijing couldn’t take him out if they wanted him gone, which makes me wonder why they wouldn’t, I guess World War III but it’s not like that’s not already a possibility

        • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
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          6 个月前

          There isn’t a replacement in place for Putin that would be any different. Everyone that thinks and acts different is kept away from power in Russia. Pushed out of windows, deaths in prison or the aircraft falls out of the sky. There is a possibility that he is replaced by someone worse.

          It’s much better if he is removed from power by Russians. The next leader has to be different and havs the support of the people. Intelligence services taking him out won’t achieve this. Your likely to get an extremists that tries to escalate the war in Ukraine.

        • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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          6 个月前

          Nah. These are all state actors. They don’t want to break the taboo on assassinating world leaders when they do atrocities, because they may want to do atrocities later.

          So millions of poor fuckers die in the mud.

            • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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              6 个月前

              Aside from the instability and resource pit this would cause, if you were making these decisions and you were to be the target of the retaliatory assasinations you can see why it would not be in your best interest to go down that path.

              • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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                Yeah I see why they wouldn’t do it, but I don’t hate the idea. I could see a politicians name in the news, and feel some glimmer of hope.

                I’m mostly pointing out (maybe elsewhere in this convo) that millions are dying to make some octogenarian kleptocrat shit heads whose raison fucking d’etre is grinding the young into a bloody paste by the millions to no tangible benefit.

      • avater@lemmy.world
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        6 个月前

        don’t think that this will work. Russia is rotten to the core and there is always another head.

        we are fighting a hydra not a snake.

        • bstix@feddit.dk
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          6 个月前

          Anyway, we should start at the top and work downwards. It’s a waste of ammo to kill all the involuntary cannon fodder. If the top goes, Russia would have to reconstruct, however that might turn out.

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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          Except Putin’s behavior isn’t sane even by oligarch standards. Another corrupt leader would just take Putin’s place, but they might not be inclined to continue with Ukraine. They could just blame it all on Putin and quietly retreat the military. It’s not the best outcome, but at least Ukraine would be safe.

            • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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              6 个月前

              We did, we must get murdered by shitty people in power when we say it too loud.

              Short version: don’t have these huge power differentials.

              • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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                Is it that thing that Korea did after the fall of the Dai Nippon Empire? How is that going for them?

                Or maybe we could use some Middle East examples, like Iran or Afghanistan? Are those good examples of handling corrupt people in power? South America might have a few examples…?

              • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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                6 个月前

                Oh we know how, it’s just not pretty.

                Lol, okay, that’s my fault. When I wrote that I was thinking in a non-violent sort of way, legislatively/investigatively. A system of governance that would prevent somebody from warping the system and becoming all powerful and above the system.

                The problem with what your advocating is it doesn’t solve the problem, it just punts the ball down the field, and then sooner or later the same scenario problem comes back again.

                • GreenBottles@lemmy.world
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                  6 个月前

                  Well, you could say that with nearly any solution besides peace… which is hard to maintain too. So, pick your poison.

                • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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                  6 个月前

                  I blame the French Revolution for giving these romantic notions. On the surface, it looks like people overthrowing the rich. But when you read into what followed, it was a violent power struggle where yesterday’s new leader was next up at the guillotine tomorrow.

                  And what came of it in the end? Napoleon, another powerful centralized ruler.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      6 个月前

      There are smart people in Russia who need better things to do. This bullshit is out of control.

    • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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      There needs to not be a ‘Russia’ after this. Split it up. Try to keep the regions peaceful and shit, but absolutely divide them politically, so one cannot say ‘Russia’ is a meaningful entity.

      • Land_Strider@lemmy.world
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        6 个月前

        Yeah, we know how it went with Africa. Sure. You’d like to do that from the comfort of your home, right?

        • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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          6 个月前

          Africa was carved up with the intent to be exploitable, with minority regimes that needed colonial support in power and intentional ethnic and resource conflicts aplenty.

          Don’t be a dick about it, carve it up based on extant cultural regions with balancedish resources, and it could work. At least closer to ‘works’ than having a ‘Russia’ is right now.

      • crazyCat@sh.itjust.works
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        6 个月前

        Oh that sounds easy and like it surely would backfire spectacularly /s that’s how you get a nuclear war or similar.

        • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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          You can’t convince me Russia’s nuclear arsenal works for shit, much less the missiles.

          And even if one or two get through; still a net gain on human life over another year or ten of meat grinder warfare.

          And if you put a bounty on Russian warheads…

        • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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          Or just carve up Russia so no part us big enough to pull this shit again, and people there are less under the thumb of a handful of shit heads in Moscow/st Petersburg.

          • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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            I don’t know really… carving up Africa, did not really work too well. Although it does make sense to divide it into smaller independent regions, I don’t see this happening to other mega countries like China, USA, India etc.

            • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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              It basically has in the united states. I will be killed if I go to the CSA, but I’m only gonna get social murdered here on the west coast. I’d be pretty okay splitting off.Lotta people here would. Biggest problem is water, abd that’s going to shit anyway.

              • Texas_Hangover@lemm.ee
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                I’ve read some of your posts, and you seem a hell of a lot more murderous and psychotic than anyone I’ve ever met in the south.

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    6 个月前

    How do you stop a jammer like this, short of turning off the transmitters responsible for it?

    • digeridoo@lemmy.ml
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      As others have said, you can’t passively bypass GNSS jamming. The signal more or less has the same amount of power as a 60 watt light bulb, transmitted from a satellite out in Medium Earth Orbit. You throw enough energy at the same frequency as the signal and it’s over. There are ways to improve the receivers resilience by giving it more signals to connect to (GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou) or several signals being transmitted by the same constellation (L1, L2, L5).

      Also, many different systems occupy pretty much the same frequencies, just with different characteristics which makes all the signals more susceptible.

    • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
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      You can’t. Think of it like two radio stations that are too close. It doesn’t matter how good of a receiver you have it will only ever pick up the signals being transmitted. And when there is noise on the frequency then that is what it will pick up.

      • Richard@lemmy.world
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        Well there’s always the option of outcompeting each other in signal intensity, but I guess that that’s not really possible in this case.

    • trolololol@lemmy.world
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      Best way to mitigate is have an inertial system. It’s a calculator that, based on where you are and where you’re heading, keeps track of your updated position.

      The math is not that crazy, but with enough time the sensors errors crop up and you’ll be slightly off course, then a bit, then a lot.

    • cybort1983@lemmy.world
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      6 个月前

      I would suggest HARM Missiles launched from F/A 18 Aircraft. That will teach the effing russians to mess with GPS

  • BreakDecks@lemmy.ml
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    Might be worth some degree of suspicion around including GLONASS as a part of GNSS. Russia could create worldwide issues if they decided to fuck around with their constellation.

    • theyoyomaster@lemmy.world
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      It would probably be easier for them to mess with it and not affect themselves than it is with GPS and Galileo.

  • deafboy@lemmy.world
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    Isn’t that kinda pathetic? Jamming GPS is not hard, nor impressive. It’s just annoying.

  • mindlight@lemm.ee
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    6 个月前

    “…and Russia is thought to be responsible.”

    Nooooooo… Russia? Really? They would neeeveeeer?

  • Emerald@lemmy.world
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    I feel like these planes should be able to fall back on other GNSS. Like Galileo, GLONASS, or even BeiDou.

    • BreakDecks@lemmy.ml
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      6 个月前

      GLONASS

      Fall back to the Russian GNSS constellation to defend against Russian GNSS manipulation?

    • lengau@midwest.social
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      I would guess this is a matter of the media talking about all GNSS as “GPS” rather than the planes only supporting the US military’s navigation system.

    • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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      It stops only when they are forced to stop and not a moment sooner. Who has the will or the ability? In the U.S., conservatives are on Putin’s side, so as long as conservatives have any power (like they do now), they will back him.

      The EU is sounding the alarms, but only France is stepping up to the plate ready to fight. As usual, the EU will just hope France will protect the rest of them.

      • capital@lemmy.world
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        As shitty as Putin is, I don’t think he has a death wish.

        I think we’ve made it clear we know where he is at all times. First reply we send is on his head.

      • NineMileTower@lemmy.world
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        I’m not sure what flash dessication is, but I’m willing to bet Putin would bring the world down with him if cornered.

        • APassenger@lemmy.world
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          Nuclear blast, where I focused on the heat and excluded the long, painful radiation deaths that would also occur.

          Edit: radio - > radiation

  • Shurimal@kbin.social
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    6 个月前

    Guess it’s time to dust off those VOR navigation skills, then…

    And, as ususal, fuck Putler and his cronies.

    • mea_rah@lemmy.world
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      Correct me if I’m wrong, but VOR can be jammed just as easily? It’s effectively just ground based GPS.

      There are actually devices, that can to a certain extent resist jamming by rejecting signal coming from some direction while amplifying signal from other. Typically they amplify signal from space and reject signal from ground where the jammers would be. So in a way GPS is more resilient against jamming if you can use this device. But AFAIK they are only used for military purposes.

      • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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        6 个月前

        That device is called a CRPA (pronounced serpa). They are very effective at anti-jam.

        As far as VOR jamming, those use a VHF omni-directional antenna, so it can be jammed. It might be hard because of the omni-directional part and the numbers of them, but definitely doable.

          • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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            6 个月前

            Inertial systems are good enough for rockets going to Mars, so why not a plane flying in a straight line?

            • metaldream@sopuli.xyz
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              So I read about it on Wikipedia and apparently they’re still the main navigation tool for modern airliners. GPS is just used to maintain the accuracy of the INS.

      • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
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        According to wikipedia all modern aircraft should be equipped with an Inertial Navigation System. A system that gives the position of the aircraft by using a buch of accelerometers and gyroscopes.

        The GPS is just there to adjust the position given by the INS.

      • rammer@sopuli.xyz
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        6 个月前

        Europe is using same or similar systems. Also Europe has Galileo satnav system. But it has the same drawbacks as GPS.

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    6 个月前

    Is this where the beginning g of the end of free open GPS starts?

    Been wondering when we’d have to start paying for the privilege to use an encrypted private GPS service.

          • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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            Do you think country-wide jamming of a high-power radio signal is easy? The magnitude of difference between jamming a building and jamming at airline altitudes or at long distances is massive. You don’t just go out and buy a jammer that blocks GPS for a country.

            • Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee
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              I don’t think that for an individual it is easy. But for a country as large as Russia (even with a somewhat pathetic economy)

    • halva@discuss.tchncs.de
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      that’s… not how gps works, y’know?

      the satellites only send out signal, they don’t care about the ground

      • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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        Explain how jamming works. The person isn’t saying encryption overcomes jamming, just that encryption will be used to make the new system private and paid instead of free to use. Not being GPS will make it avoid GPS jamming.

        • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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          It doesn’t matter if you encrypt it, it still has to make information out of communication with satellites. Jamming saturates the band range that something is attempting to communicate across. So no sensible information is available because it’s all noise

          • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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            Did you not read what I said? I said “the person isn’t saying that encryption overcomes jamming, just that encryption will be used to make the new system private and paid.” At no point did I say or imply that encryption helps overcome jamming. I did say that since they don’t transmit on the same frequency as GPS then jamming GPS won’t affect it (depending on how close their L-band range is to the GPS L-band range).

            I design GPS satellites for a living. I understand how jamming works.

            • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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              You asked how jamming works, I simply discussed that.

              Even if the new system is encrypted and on another spectrum, that doesn’t make it invincible from jamming, the jammer just needs to be adjusted to target it.

              All I’m saying is encryption and subscription does not defend from jamming.

              Tactics like signal hopping and multi signal parallel processing / handshake help with jamming (plus highly focused and shield directional antennas)

      • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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        6 个月前

        Xona is out there planning their own satellite constellation in their own band of the spectrum (so not jammed at the same time as GPS), and is fully encrypted.

          • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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            6 个月前

            Not just as easily. Broad-spectrum jamming is more difficult, so they either develop one of those with enough power to jam both signals (not as easy) or the build twice as many jammers (not as easy).

            • brianorca@lemmy.world
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              Not as easy for individuals. Still relatively easy for a state actor. It’s not a magnitude difference, just a difference in degree.

    • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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      You are talking about Xona. Private company, fully encrypted signal, paid service, not jammed at the same frequency as GPS.

      EDIT: I would love for one of the people who down-voted me to explain what was wrong with my completely factual description of a company who is doing exactly what this person asked about.

      • brianorca@lemmy.world
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        6 个月前

        If enough people are using this new system, Russia could easily pivot to target it as well. Jamming is not inherently hard, especially if a nation is attempting it.

        Jamming in the US will bring the FCC down your throat. The stronger the signal, the faster they will show up. Russia transmitting a jamming signal from Russia doesn’t have to worry about such things. A jamming device is not hard to find, but on sovereign soil it’s still untouchable short of war.

        • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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          Not the point of the post I replied to or my post. I develop GPS satellites for the Space Force. I understand jamming quite well and know what capabilities Russia has.

          The person didn’t say that this hypothetical private system couldn’t be jammed. They said that if GPS is jammed then it opens up a niche for a private company to sell their own service. I said that exact thing is happening. That isn’t to say that service couldn’t also get jammed, but Russia is mainly jamming GPS because it affects military missions. Since the military wouldn’t be using this private company, then Russia is unlikely to jam their signal.

          • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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            5 个月前

            How does Russia jamming GPS open a market for a private GPS service? Russia can just jam the private network alongside the government operated one. So now people in the Baltics are gettinf blacked out of a service they are oaying a subscription to instead of one they are poggybacking off of for free.

            At best they are talking about something completely unrelated to the news article.

            • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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              I’m someone who works developing new GPS satellites and has to understand jamming. Even for Russia it isn’t easy to jam GPS in a very large area. It’s not impossible but also not as easy as just putting some jammers out there. In small areas it isn’t so bad for a nation. In buildings, even corporations can do it. Jamming at large scales gets very hard very fast.

              So doing it for two different PNT services, one of which isn’t being used by any military, wouldn’t be something Russia would do.

  • normalandy@lemmy.world
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    6 个月前

    Russia, Russia, Russia. Whenever they start crowing about those fuckers I can be sure that the truth is something entirely different.

  • normalandy@lemmy.world
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    6 个月前

    Not at all- but definitely not to US or NATO. I also dislike Russia with a passion! Maybe now you can switch and get me on hate speech? 😂