Sunday August 31stas indicated by the Financial Time, theairplane with the President of the European Commission on board Ursula von der leyen he suffered significant interference to the GPS satellite navigation system while he was about to land atPlovdiv Airportin Bulgariaforcing the pilot to land in manual mode with the help of paper maps. The president and all the people aboard the aircraft have never been in danger; Airplanes can in fact follow a route, land and take off even without the (very precious) support of satellite navigation, moreover the pilots are perfectly trained to manage any problems for the GPS system. However, it is clear that the situation is further complicated and increase certain risks. For this reason the pilot of the plane has decided to fly for an hour above the Bulgarian airport, waiting for the interference to pass; Since it was not like that, he finally decided to run manually with analog maps. The operation was carried out without any problem.
According to reports from the British newspaper, the Bulgarian authorities suspect that interference to the GPS signal – which affected the entire Plovdiv airport – was the work of the Russiawhich has already denied through the spokesperson of the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov. From the beginning of the War in Ukrainemoreover, several countries that are on the border with Russia or in any case are relatively close to the phenomena of jamming And spoofing GPS satellite signals, in simple words interruptions And anomalies – as significant movements – on maps.
The mainly affected area is that of the countries overlooking the Baltic Seawhere from the beginning of the so -called “special military operation” the Baltic Jammer would have entered into operation, a system to disturb the satellite signals, in particular on the city of Kaliningrada Russian Exclave between Poland and Lithuania. The reason is simple: it is an area strongly militarized In war time and jamming and spoofing help “hiding” military bases and others strategic assett to the “eyes” of western monitoring systems. Without forgetting that many guided missiles use GPS navigation (but not only) to accurately affect the objectives. If you accep them with the jamming, make it more difficult to get centered.
Because air traffic was stuck for hours: the zero installment procedure
Clearly these systems also influence the navigation of Planes and civil ships which end up in this bubble of disorders and anomalies. As reported by the Financial Time, from the inhalation of the year as many as thirteen states of the European Union have written to the Commission to report the continuous interference to satellite signals, which clearly complicate normal airport activities and beyond. Furthermore, it is not the first time that prominent figures are involved in Jamming episodes, which can also be targeted. The British newspaper cites an episode similar to that of Ursula von der Leyen – which went to Bulgaria to visit a site where they are produced ammunition also intended for Ukraine – happened to the head of the German armed forces.
As explained by the Yacht.de portal, among the systems supplied to the Russians capable of disturbing the GPS signals there are the Zhitel military systemswhich can induce jamming and spoofing up to 30 kilometers away. These devices, technically called jammer, emit radio signals Very powerful that overlap with those of the systems that hook the satellite signals, thus sending them into “confusion” or completely interrupting their functioning. A struck plane that uses the GPS signal to navigate in fact its reference system, however it can continue to follow the route (as well as land and take off) with the help of other systems that can replace satellite navigation in case of problems. For example there are theIns (Inertial navigation system) and various forms of radio assistance that allow the landing in manual mode.
For jamming they are generally used vehicle (as trucks with ad hoc antennas), planes And ships suitably prepared for the electronic war. It is necessary to underline that Plovdiv airport is located over 1,000 kilometers from the nearest Russian city and several hundred kilometers from Crimea Occupied, therefore, if Russia actually involved in Von der Leyen was actually involved, a Zhitel system would not have been used. Unless there was – for example – an equipped vehicle parked in a strategic point outside the Russian borders, capable of involving the Bulgarian airport. There are systems with courses also significantly higher than Zhitel, but in this case, as indicated, Jamming specifically involved the Bulgarian airport while the plane was coming with Ursula von der Leyen on board.
