Nato’s easternmost member states are grappling with a sharp rise in radio and satellite interference, with Baltic governments accusing Russia of positioning equipment for electronic warfare close to their borders.
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Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Baltic Sea region has registered widespread signal jamming, including of the Global Positioning System or GPS, which has affected air and maritime communications.
But authorities in the Baltic states say it has significantly escalated in recent months, with the Estonian regulator saying that 85 per cent of flights in the country now experience disruption. They have also reported a rapid increase in intentional transmission of faulty coordinates, a practice known as spoofing.
Lithuania last month accused Russia of orchestrating a spike in GPS jamming, causing a 22-fold increase in such incidents since the previous year.
At stake is not only the safety of civilian transport but the security of a region that has become a flashpoint for Nato in its stand-off with the Kremlin. The jamming amounts to a challenge to the military alliance over how to respond, according to Jacek Tarocinski, a research fellow at the state-funded Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw.
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“Russia is continuously testing Nato, probing both our military and political responses,” Tarocinski said. It’s part of an effort “to exploit divisions among allies and undermine the cohesion of the alliance”.