Finland reports persistent interference with satellite navigation signals in the Baltic Sea

The Finnish Coast Guard has reported that it has been detecting persistent interference with satellite navigation signals in the Baltic Sea since April, and in recent weeks has observed tanker crews faking their positions to hide their calls to Russia.

Last week, Finnish Interior Minister Lulu Ranne said that, according to official Helsinki, Russia is behind the interference detected in the signals of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and the Global Positioning System (GPS) in Finland and the Baltic Sea region, the Voice of America reports.

The Coast Guard said that GNSS interference, which it has increasingly detected in the Gulf of Finland since April, is causing ships to go off course, forcing Finnish authorities to warn ships not to approach islands or shallow waters.

The Coast Guard said the interference has caused the ship's Automatic Identification System (AIS) to malfunction, which provides electronic navigation.

“In recent weeks, we have also seen (AIS) devices being deliberately switched off, thereby spoofing position information in online positioning systems… so that the ship shows an incorrect position,”– Gulf of Finland Coast Guard Commander Pekka Niittila told Reuters.

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Niittila explained that spoofing is a new phenomenon that the Coast Guard has already detected about a dozen times on various tankers calling at Russian ports near St Petersburg.

"In our assessment, this is related to circumventing sanctions or avoiding their consequences,– he said. – For example, if a country buying Russian oil does not want to know that the oil was purchased in Russia, the seller or the vessel could use spoofing to make it appear that the vessel has not visited Russia.”.

The Coast Guard has clarified that it believes Russia is jamming signals to protect its oil ports in the eastern Gulf of Finland from possible drone strikes.

Western officials have previously accused Russia of a large-scale cyberattack on a satellite internet network in Ukraine as a prelude to a full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. Airlines have recently complained about an increase in GPS interference.

Estonia has accused Russia of interfering with navigation devices in the airspace over the Baltic states.

In April, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told the Financial Times that Estonia “considers what is happening with GPS to be part of Russia's hostile actions,” calling it “hybrid attacks.”

Prepared by: Sergey Daga