cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/408016
Russia has been utilizing Kaliningrad, its strategic exclave bordering Poland and Lithuania, as a base to disrupt European Union satellite systems, according to a report from the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The ITU’s Radio Regulations Board (RRB) urged Russia to “immediately cease any deliberate action to cause harmful interference to frequency assignments of other administrations.” This statement follows a review of geolocation data from disrupted signals, which the board described as “extremely worrisome and unacceptable.”
For several months, European satellite companies have reported being targeted by Russian radio frequency interference, leading to broadcast interruptions and, in at least two instances, violent programming overriding content on children’s channels.
Initially, complaints from several NATO members identified the sources of disruption as mainland Russia and occupied Crimea. However, the RRB’s latest findings indicate that recent interference originated from locations including Kaliningrad and Moscow.
The disruptions have primarily targeted TV and radio channels with Ukrainian content, but have also affected channels operated by the Administration of the Netherlands, the report said. The interference has manifested in various forms, such as high-power unmodulated carriers and replicated multiplexing signals, which override the original content transmitted by satellite.
Two separate satellite operators conducted geolocation analyses, both independently concluding that the interference occurred from earth stations located in Moscow, Kaliningrad, and Pavlovka.
Last week, reports emerged that a commercial transatlantic flight experienced significant disruptions due to GPS jamming, marking the first known instance of such an incident on this route. A flight from Madrid to Toronto was forced to operate in a “degraded mode” because a higher-altitude flight had been affected by GPS interference.
The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank that monitors global conflicts, previously reported that it observed high levels of GPS jamming over Poland and the Baltic region since late 2023. Some analysts and experts have attributed these incidents to Russian electronic warfare (EW) activity from the Kaliningrad area and near St. Petersburg, Russia.
Well, as things stand, there’s no right in customary international law to a radio frequency. If Russia wants to produce disruption, Russia basically can. It’s going to annoy countries, but there isn’t really a lot that can be done aside from pressure, sanctions and such. Hell, even if there were such a right, it’d ultimately need to be backed up by ability and willingness to use force at some level, by someone. I’m not sure that countries are willing to wage war over radio broadcasts, no matter how disruptive.
In theory, a country could probably run a pretty powerful broadcast off a ship. So I don’t think that Kaliningrad is even all that special here – Russia could be doing the same even if it didn’t have a little enclave of territory and didn’t mind annoying whoever is using the signal.
My guess is that Russia will stop when the war ends. That is, my assumption is that Russia isn’t willing to do peacetime jamming for the purpose of just being obnoxious.
If it’s enough of a problem, it’d probably be possible to set up navigation systems that are more-limited, don’t have the degree of military utility of something like GPS. Maybe reactivate LORAN, say.
In the case of transatlantic aircraft, I’d assume that those normally have INS navigation systems; while limited in accuracy, those should be usable as a backup to GPS in most roles.
They’ve been doing this long before the Ukraine invasion. They are literally just flexing to be dicks. It’s like showing off this new annoying thing you learned to do as a child. The reason we know this is that they’ve been doing this on the NW border of Russia to Finland as well, and since this type of interference is geographically relevant, it clearly has nothing to do with the war.
This is the same thing as their boats and subs being detected near undersea cables, and then like a week later one of them gets “mysteriously” cut and they’re standing around faking confusion saying “Huh? What are you talking about? That wasn’t me. Stop hitting yourself, though.” Fucking childish.
They were being dicks even in the 80s. I remember the Russian Woodpecker. My father was a amateur radio operator and there were whole frequency bands that were unusable because of that prat-prat-prat-prat.
So, I’m not sure what the rationale is – it might be worrying about long-range drones, like those light aircraft, flying around Belarus, but I’ve definitely seen some sources say that they believe that the Kaliningrad jamming is a function of the war.
This article, from late May, has the Finnish government saying that they believe that it’s related to the war.
https://www.politico.eu/article/gps-jamming-is-a-side-effect-of-russian-military-activity-finnish-transport-agency-says/
Makes sense.
Internal navigation system navigation systems