NATO Nation Hit By 'Unprecedented' GPS Attack

Disturbances in GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation signals have been observed in parts of NATO's newest member Finland, it has been reported.

The disruptions in the signals used by pilots as well as motorists, follow previous GPS disturbances that have sparked speculation of Russian involvement, although there is no proof that Moscow was behind the latest incident.

The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) said that the GPS disturbances were detected in eastern and southeastern Finland on Sunday, according to Finnish news outlet YLE News.

The disruptions were spotted on the GPSjam website, with administrator John Wiseman describing them on X, formerly Twitter, as: "Unprecedented in terms of [number] of aircraft affected and size of the region affected. The Baltic sure has been exciting lately."

In a follow-up message Wiseman said: "It's cooled off in the last 24 hours, but still some significant interference that's happening, that is typically not seen in this area of Finland."

Traficom's aviation chief Jari Pöntinen said that GPS disturbances did not affect flight safety, because planes are equipped with other navigation systems.

Pöntinen would not comment on whether Russia was involved although he did say such disruptions usually occur near conflict areas.

"There have been disturbances in the Baltic Sea near Kaliningrad, in the Black Sea Region and in the Middle East, such as near Israel," Pöntinen said.

When contacted for comment by Newsweek, Traficom said in a statement that it receives information regarding interruptions in GPS signals via occurrence reports provided by aircraft operators and air navigation service providers.

"However, data provided for Traficom in occurrence reports does not enable us to analyze an explanation for interruptions," the statement added.

Soon after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, French air safety official Benoît Roturier, head of satellite navigation at the Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile said that Moscow was behind GPS jamming incidents affecting aircraft over Finland.

He told Bloomberg in April 2022 that the goal then was not to jam civil aviation but was likely a side-effect of military equipment protecting troops from GPS-guided missiles.

Tensions have increased between Helsinki and Moscow since Finland joined NATO in April 2023 with Helsinki accusing Russia of stoking a migrant crisis by sending refugees to its border—claims the Kremlin denies.

Last week, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna, said that Helsinki's NATO accession in April made Finland vulnerable should hostilities break out between the alliance and Moscow.

In a statement to Newsweek, the Finnish foreign ministry responded to Ulyanov's comments by saying that its accession to the alliance was a reaction "to Russia's war of aggression and its implications to European security environment."

"There is no direct military threat against Finland at the moment. Finland continues its strong support to Ukraine," the statement added.

Update 1/3/24, 9:59 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a statement from Traficom.