Tests Suggest Russian Satellites Can Jam GPS On a Continental Scale (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0183682598
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/06/08/2317255/tests-suggest-russian-satellites-can-jam-gps-on-a-continental-scale
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/tests-suggest-russian-satellites-can-jam-gps-on-a-continental-scale/
> The discovery came from an investigation [2]detailed in a June 2 preprint paper by Todd Humphreys and his student Zach Clements at The University of Texas at Austin, along with Argyris Krizise at Stanford University in California. By sifting through public data from ground-based stations with global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers, they identified a pattern of high-powered interference lasting less than 10 seconds each time but simultaneously detectable by ground stations across Europe from Norway to Spain to Poland, and even reaching as far west as Greenland and Canada.
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> By analyzing the ground station data from January 2019 to April 2026, the researchers found 75 days with at least one widespread GNSS interference event overlapping with the [3]GPS L1 frequency band centered on 1575.42 megahertz. That represents the main band used for signal transmission by the US-made GPS satellite constellation and GNSS constellations from other countries. Such interference patterns happened mostly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays during business hours in Europe, Humphreys told the [4]YouTube channel Veritasium . Because such "continental-scale" interference was simultaneously affecting GPS receivers across Europe and beyond, Humphreys and his colleagues calculated that the source had to be at least 1,200 kilometers above the Earth.
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> [...] In the Veritasium video, Humphreys speculated that the Russians may have been testing the satellites' GPS interference capabilities only briefly on a neighboring frequency adjacent to the typical GPS band. "And then in the eventual future when there is a hot conflict, they go ahead and tune their transmitter down to the GPS band, but it's much more damaging now that it lies right on that band," he said. Incidentally, the raw data also revealed a second interference burst from the Russian satellites in a lower-frequency band used by China's BeiDou navigation system. "I can no longer say this is accidental with confidence," Humphreys told Veritasium. He also described the Russian satellites' quiet demonstration as a "massive escalation in the electronic warfare background conflict that is going on right now."
Richard Bowden, division head of assured and resilient PNT at the multinational technology company GMV in Spain, [5]wrote in a LinkedIn comment: "These signals are, without a doubt, intentional and placed on or around GNSS signals, and have the potential to disrupt legitimate use of GNSS services. But from our side at least, we can't be sure they are intentionally malicious or intended as an EW [electronic warfare] weapon."
[1] https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/tests-suggest-russian-satellites-can-jam-gps-on-a-continental-scale/
[2] https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.03673
[3] https://gssc.esa.int/navipedia/index.php/GPS_Signal_Plan
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz23G_UXCGA
[5] https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7468748867489087488/?dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A(7469140435245113344%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7468748867489087488)
GPS Interference (Score:3)
First, GPS signals are relatively weak. Second, they come from 'up' - if you really want to avoid terrestrial jamming, then a bit of shielding that only exposes your receiver to the sky will help a lot.
The solution for creating interference is relaying legitimate signals from space, if you can't crack the encryption. By messing with timing carefully, you can severely degrade the position accuracy or cause it to drift to where you want it.
I find it interesting that GPS, Galileo and BeiDou share 2/3 of their base frequencies, but GLONASS doesn't - its overlap is additional frequencies. I'm not a comms guy, but I do wonder if that means Russia can interfere with GPS, Galileo and BeiDou simultaneously without affecting their own gear significantly.
It means less and less when it comes to military use though, since the military expects jamming and spoofing and has multiple methods of position fixing of various degrees of accuracy.
Re: (Score:2)
> ....I do wonder if that means Russia can interfere with GPS, Galileo and BeiDou simultaneously without affecting their own gear significantly.
This was one possibility mentioned in the video - or at least, this is how I also understood the remark
Re: (Score:1)
> First, GPS signals are relatively weak. Second, they come from 'up' - if you really want to avoid terrestrial jamming, then a bit of shielding that only exposes your receiver to the sky will help a lot.
This is a story about satellite-based jamming. It would help if you would try reading at least the summary.
Re: (Score:3)
Might help if you read my entire comment in good faith instead of just scanning for something to shout 'gotcha!' about for imaginary Internet points, but here we are.
Re: (Score:3)
You're conflating a few things there, but you're onto something.
To jam GPS, all you need to do is fill the channel with noise, because as you say, GPS is actually below the noise floor when it reaches the ground anyway. However, you do need to fill it with 'edges', rather than just a single continuous tone. I suspect the military receivers are more resistant than consumer because they use a wider band, and so you'd need to cover a much broader area with convincing 'edges' to fully defeat them - but you can
Re: (Score:3)
> I find it interesting that GPS, Galileo and BeiDou share 2/3 of their base frequencies, but GLONASS doesn't - its overlap is additional frequencies. I'm not a comms guy, but I do wonder if that means Russia can interfere with GPS, Galileo and BeiDou simultaneously without affecting their own gear significantly.
Most "GPS" receiver modules these days support GPS and GLONASS. GLONASS support has been available for well over a decade on most modules used on phones these days. You can buy a very modern GNSS rece
Could explain (Score:2)
What seemed to be noticeable errors this past year on watching my vehicle track on GPS. Some major lags on positioning, and even some apparent forays off road while traveling on an interstate. I realize the radio testing was done in the northeast Atlantic, but it seems like a possible explanation for something I had not seen in a long time. I also realize mine is an anecdote and not significant data. I do remember when they turned off selective availability, rigging my Garmin to the computer so I could wa
Re: (Score:2)
> What seemed to be noticeable errors this past year on watching my vehicle track on GPS. Some major lags on positioning, and even some apparent forays off road while traveling on an interstate. I realize the radio testing was done in the northeast Atlantic, but it seems like a possible explanation for something I had not seen in a long time. I also realize mine is an anecdote and not significant data. I do remember when they turned off selective availability, rigging my Garmin to the computer so I could watch the position accuracy numbers tighten up.
I'd not be concerned about the "anecdote". That's just something like "correlation is not causation" - a favorite on Slashdot.
I too noticed some anomalous activity while traveling, things I haven't seen before. So now we have two anecdotes now! 8^) Maybe if we get 100 million anecdotes, we can move to the correlation is not causation stage. Maybe... don't want to be too hasty. ;^)
How long (Score:2)
I've seen the Veritasium video and my question at the time was, and remains, how long could it keep this up for? Producing a lot of power for a few seconds is one thing, maintaining it for any significant length of time is quite another when you only have sunlight to rely on.
Perhaps these satellites have much bigger solar arrays than GPS satellites. Perhaps they have huge batteries to allow them to maintain the required level of jamming for an extended period during a conflict.
Re: (Score:3)
Honestly you don't need a LOT of power for a long time... but it's enough that it's probably going to limit actual use.
As noted above GPS signals are very low power. That's why Lightsquared bought spectrum next to GPS dirt cheap and tried to blackmail the US government into swapping them to much more expensive spectrum after they applied to broadcast at high power.
Is anyone really surprised? (Score:2)
I'd be surprised if all the major players didn't have this capability in some form or another. In fact, I'd expect that most LEO GPS (or equivalent) birds would be able to broadcast jamming signals for "opposition" services.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure. The US government's first thought when they put up the GPS constellation was how to keep others from using it. Their second thought was shit, this thing is pretty easy to jam, how do we stop other people from preventing us from using it? They and the Russians were thinking up and testing anti-satellite weapons long before that.
I also don't think it's likely this is purposely a jamming system. You don't test your secret weapon by pressing the button a couple times every Wednesday year after year until
Your first indication (Score:2)
Your first indication of WWIII will be when the internet suddenly goes down and your GPS stops working.
If everyone suddenly starts checking their phones and asking if there's something going on with the wifi, you'll know it's game time.
Re: (Score:2)
> Your first indication of WWIII will be when the internet suddenly goes down and your GPS stops working.
WWIII already started for some time, now. The first indications were the resurgence of ultranationalism, fascism and colonialism around the globe.
The question is: will it remain in its current state of cold war, with conflicts erupting here and there, or will it eventually escalate into a wider, full-fledged conflict?
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> The question is: will it remain in its current state of cold war, with conflicts erupting here and there, or will it eventually escalate into a wider, full-fledged conflict?
That you're asking that question is how we know WWIII hasn't started. If it had, it would already be a wider, full-fledged conflict.
That's not to say that it won't, but that this isn't a world war yet.
Re: (Score:2)
I get what you're saying.
But IMHO, with such - veiled or open - conflicts happening right now between US, Russia, China, Ukraine, EU, Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, i'd still argue that we're witnessing a de facto world war . Great part of the world is already involved, or dealing with serious consequences of current affairs.
Also - and this is just an educated guess - I see the UN "imploding" in the near future, which could be a repetition of WWII.
Re: (Score:2)
> I get what you're saying.
> But IMHO, with such - veiled or open - conflicts happening right now between US, Russia, China, Ukraine, EU, Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, i'd still argue that we're witnessing a de facto world war . Great part of the world is already involved, or dealing with serious consequences of current affairs.
> Also - and this is just an educated guess - I see the UN "imploding" in the near future, which could be a repetition of WWII.
Your assertion means that we are not in WW3, but merely an extension of WW2. There have been proxy wars starting not long after 1946, and continuing to this day.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, but then we never really had a WW2, or even a WW1. It's all just a continuation of the wars for the succession of Austria.
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Definitionally, a world war is a "massive international conflict that engages most or all of the world's major powers."
We're not quite there yet, but sit tight.
Why is Russia so aggressive? (Score:2)
I heard a description of Russia of old as a "donut" empire , all the wealth in a ring of robbed territory, and an entitled useless elite in the empty hole in the middle.
This culture playing out or some gene expression needing devolution?
Why do they worry about invasion, who do they think wants to live in Russia as a sad looking peasant under oligarchs?
Any revolutionary fight's been beaten out of the people by one bad, mad leader after another, they seem to love them.
Re: (Score:2)
> The Washington war party pushed NATO right up to their border.
You mean countries who had escaped Russia's grasp asked to join NATO so they wouldn't get invaded by Russia. Fear of Russia made the Baltics ask to join NATO. And of course, Russia then invaded Ukraine, a country not in NATO, showing the Baltics were right to be worried. On top of that, to invade Ukraine and then continue its car with Ukraine, Russia had to remove troops along the borders with NATO countries, showing that the Russian government, for all its claims otherwise, understands that NATO is not a t
Re: (Score:2)
"who do they think wants to live in Russia as a sad looking peasant under oligarchs?" Nobody, but Putin, as do all dictators, playing on an endless loop "the godless hordes are coming for our Lucky Charms, they are magically delicious." Before you know it, Haitian dogs and cats will be eating Ohioans.
Re: (Score:2)
Same old story from nearly a century ago. The country is shit but it's always the fault of others. Start with people who can't fight back and escalate with rhetoric and fascism.
"intentionally malicious OR intended as EW weapon" (Score:2)
Wut ?
Most weapons are intentionally malicious.
Better than blowing up the satellites (Score:2)
It is not like the satellites's position is unknown and not like they can change position.
Jamming is more appropriate for anything short of World War III
And it is probably relatively easy to bomb the jammer.
Re: (Score:2)
According to a talk I attended by one of the GPS system designers you can jam GPS with a 9v battery.
No surprises there, (Score:2)
Those are 50-year old sysrems. I guess, by now, bigger nations have a plan B and C for Russia jamming GPS on a large scale - and Russia for other nations jamming GLONASS, obviously.
More tiresome US ignorance ensues (Score:2)
Honestly, I am so tired of American (by which I mean US citizens) confidently spouting about topics they have fucking zero knowledge. The level of ignorance on show regards Europe suggests never having stepped outside of their state, let alone the US. Hows about you keep your ill informed self to your self.
So? (Score:2)
I guarantee the US can also so big whoop.
Exactly Why "Driverless" Cars Need Steering Wheels (Score:2)
In the even...of a conflict we need to be able to get all the driverless cars off of the roads.
If Russia can, they would... (Score:3, Insightful)
With all the satellite launches from Russia, China, and North Korea, this isn't something people think that might be done, but is something that is actually being done.
Remember, people. We are at war. Europe just does not want to realize it yet, but their entire existence is in danger right now. Ask the older people who were born and remember what life was like before 1989. In normal times, Iran's attacks on European nations would muster an article 5 reprisal, "mess with one bean, get the entire enchilada". However, Europe doesn't even have a usable navy to put to sea. Russia is actively attacking the EU and NATO. In most times, cutting undersea cables directly can be considered an act of war as well.
The EU needs to stop thinking this can be done... but start thinking of retaliation strategies because it is being done.
Re:If Russia can, they would... (Score:5, Insightful)
Too bad NATO has no big mean dog anymore, just a Putin Poodle.
Re:If Russia can, they would... (Score:5, Insightful)
Europe supported America through all its wars, even the stupid ones, then la Presidenta took American support away from Europe and is laughing at America getting wet. He was never able to think beyond his own pocketbook.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
> Europe supported America through all its wars, even the stupid ones, then la Presidenta took American support away from Europe and is laughing at America getting wet. He was never able to think beyond his own pocketbook.
I had no idea that Europe supported the USA during WW2 - where do you get your history from? Or is that a verboten subject?
Re: (Score:2)
Are you implying that WW2 was an US war? Where do you get your history from?
Re: (Score:2)
What do you imagine the "allied forces" consisted of? Considering your last statement it looks like you somehow believe that Europe equals Germany somehow.
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
> What do you imagine the "allied forces" consisted of?
The USSR plus a few hangers-on. If you look at actual military history instead of Hollywood movies, the war was won on the Eastern Front where millions of Soviet soldiers died wiping out most of Germany's best forces.
The fighting in the West helped a bit, but ultimately Germany lost because the Soviets kept killing German soldiers until there weren't any left.
Re: (Score:2)
I just KNEW it was a good idea to hang on to all those old roadmaps from days gone by...
Oh sure they'll be outdated in some aspects, but largely, roads and highways don't just get up and move themselves....
And they laughed when I said I don't wanna throw them all out....
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not a fan of the current administration, but NATO along with Europe has long been dependent on the U.S. militarily for too long. America built an unparalleled military force and funded NATO well beyond the original 2%. While other countries failed to meet it.
The current direction of our country will harm more people across the globe in real democracies and countries that actually care about their citizens. The fact that we have become unreliable, and a potential threat has led other countries to do mor
Re: (Score:2)
NATO being dependent on us (USA) was a good thing for us despite it costing so much. It helped us stay the major super power. We were the guys in charge. If you care about a powerful USA then you want everyone depending on us for their defense.
Re-establishing what we had will be near impossible. Some of the fundamental ways our government operates has shifted. There's no longer the gentleman's agreement of "we'll follow this framework and won't exploit anything major even if we don't agree" anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
The USA used that oversized military to wage wars that had nothing whatsoever to do with NATO so I fail to see why you are accusing other NATO members for not having militaries strong enough to start stupid military adventures. Basically, throughout the whole history of NATO only one single war was caused by an attack on a NATO member, namely the USA.
Re: (Score:2)
Keep them bogged down in Ukraine, how's that for strategy?
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, let's feed the Ukrainians into the Russian maw. Want to guess how the Ukrainians feel about that? Ever see pictures of the aftermath of Russian missiles on Ukrainian cities? Ever see the pictures of the dead Ukrainian children?
Re: (Score:2)
You mean as opposed to the children that are removed from their parents for reeducation purposes? The declared purpose of Putler is the eradication of the Ukrain culture. War crimes are just the beginning.
Re: (Score:2)
Not " opposed to the children that are removed from their parents for reeducation purposes?" Rather, in addition to.
How do you get from "Yeah, let's feed the Ukrainians into the Russian maw. Want to guess how the Ukrainians feel about that? Ever see pictures of the aftermath of Russian missiles on Ukrainian cities? Ever see the pictures of the dead Ukrainian children?" to supporting Putin?
And while we're toting up war crimes, let's include la Presidenta in there, he was with Putin every step of the way.
Re: (Score:2)
I've seen that reasoning used way too often to justify that Ukraine should just fall over. I'm also not American, DJT is not the first US president that should take a life-long vacation in The Hague. I'm also disgusted by my own country's spineless leadership, but that's nothing new either.
Re: (Score:2)
> You mean as opposed to the children that are removed from their parents for reeducation purposes? The declared purpose of Putler is the eradication of the Ukrain culture. War crimes are just the beginning.
And there is a reason why Ukraine fights back. They remember Holodomor, the previous time Russia attempted genocide.
Re: (Score:1)
At this point, it's just genocide. Russians attack everything civilian. NATO could end this, but I guess they fear it will turn into a real war with nukes. I'm not happy with Trumps attitude with this situation.I get that there will be problems if Russia falls apart. This indecisiveness is killing people.
Re: (Score:2)
Did you ask Ukrainians how they feel about it? They have agency and can make their own decisions. From the outside it looks like it's what they want.
Re: (Score:2)
> Yeah, let's feed the Ukrainians into the Russian maw. Want to guess how the Ukrainians feel about that?
Why would you have to "guess" when there's polling? Ukrainians are far less interested in conceding their lands and people to Russia than the west is, in polling.
Re: (Score:2)
> Europe just does not want to realize it yet, but their entire existence is in danger right now
Given what Ukraine is managing to get past Russian air defences, do you think Putin is going to nuke Europe and risk French nukes hitting Moscow and Petrograd? Europe's at war, sure, but talk of an existential threat needs some serious justification.
> In normal times, Iran's attacks on European nations would muster an article 5 reprisal
What attacks on European nations? Cyprus isn't a NATO member; if you're counting T
Re: (Score:2)
Russia is pretty much a joke. The entire Ukraine invasion has proven they:
1) Can't keep a modern navy afloat, let alone actively engaged with an enemy.
2) Can't keep an army feed and supplied beyond their own boarders, zero logistics capability
3) Can't muster serious troop strength, they are literally running out of conscripts, and even low quality ones like prisoners and men generally beyond their best fighting years in age.
4) Don't have the manufacturing and supply chain capability to produce replacement
Re: (Score:2)
> they are literally running out of conscripts
They're running out of prisoner conscripts, yes. They have not really tapped their main population. That's why there is still a reasonably high level of support for his war, although it surely must be waning with the recent successful attacks by Ukraine on infrastructure which must be affecting consumer prices by now. Otherwise I think your comment is accurate, but this does mean that they could throw more people at the conflict if they wanted to.
Re: (Score:2)
There actually are ways to poll people in repressive regimes. A classic one goes like this: instead of saying "Do you support President Putin?", you give them a list of a bunch of world leaders - say, Putin, Trump, Modi, Erdogan, and Macron - and ask, "How many of these leaders do you support?" And then you give the next person a different set of leaders - say, Putin, Xi, Starmer, Khamenei, and Merz - and again ask, "How many of these leaders do you support?" You can then statistically disentangle the lev
Re: (Score:2)
> Given what Ukraine is managing to get past Russian air defences, do you think Putin is going to nuke Europe and risk French nukes hitting Moscow and Petrograd?
That's not how this works; Russia comes at more powerful opponents sideways, with incrementalism, division, and hybrid warfare. They try to get pro-Russian candidates elected so that they can veto collective action. They have "accidents", such as missiles flying into your airspace, to probe how you'll react, and if the reaction is insufficient, probi
Re: If Russia can, they would... (Score:1)
Treat someone like an enemy and eventually, they behave like one.
Re: (Score:2)
> Ask the older people who were born and remember what life was like before 1989
Go ahead and ask me. All the worry back then was for nothing. Did you ever talk to a WW2 veteran? What you are proposing is madness. Russia is already well on its path to being a hermit kingdom and IMO that's enough. Unfortunately, so is the USA but that's entirely self inflicted.
Re: (Score:2)
Utter crap. Honestly, go find out a bit. Russia is completely outweighed (with the exception of nukes) by Europes combined forces. Europe has been screwed by the US pretending it was a reliable ally for many years (insisting that Europe did not in any way challenge the US), but that does not make it somehow some sort of vulnerable fucking puppy.
Re: (Score:3)
> However, Europe doesn't even have a usable navy to put to sea.
Huh?
The US navy some things it's very good at: nuclear powered carriers, nuclear powered submarines, large surface combatants, and support ships. It sucks at smaller ships (frigates, corvettes) - it's been one project disaster after the next. Europe, by contrast, excels in frigates and corvettes. The US is currently trying to copy the European FREMM as the Constellation class, and it's somehow managing to even screw that up. It's one of the