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What’s new:
- Prof Todd Humphreys and his team at the University of Texas Radionavigation Lab, in cooperation with a Stanford researcher, have identified Russian satellites that have been testing jamming capability against GPS and Bei Dou.
- While not mentioned in the article, this has been going on since 2019 against GPS and 2020 against Bei Dou.
Why its important:
- Space-based interference can impact huge areas of the earth.
- PNT denial has become a tool of Great Power Competition.
What else to know:
- In 2021 Russia shot down one of its defunct satellites and threatened to destroy all 32 GPS satellites and “blind NATO” if it got in their way on Ukraine. Analysts did not think they had the capability to do that. We now know they could have jammed GPS across all of northern Europe or in the U.S. homeland. We wonder what impact that had on NATO and U.S. decision making wrt assisting Ukraine at the time.
- We wonder what impact Russia’s ability to do that will have on future decision making by NATO and the U.S.
Russian Satellites Have Been Jamming GPS Signals Across Europe, Scientists Say
Scientists and U.S. military briefers have linked short, widespread interference incidents to Russia, revealing vulnerabilities in a technology essential to everyday society.
Russian satellites have caused seconds-long GPS outages across Europe on several occasions, according to new research provided to The New York Times by scientists who specialize in GPS technology and a person familiar with a U.S. Air Force briefing on the jamming.
The Times has also learned that the European Union has conducted an investigation into the incidents, though its results are classified, a spokesperson said.
The findings are part of a research paper published on Thursday by Todd Humphreys, head of the Radionavigation Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as research conducted separately by Richard Bowden and fellow navigation experts at the large Spanish technology firm GMV.
