- New research analyzes GPS jamming signals over the past 7 years
- A Russian satellite network appears to be the source of the interference
- There are still questions about the purpose of the 10-second bursts
Losing access to GPS navigation systems might not prevent you from finding your way to the office, but it would disrupt military maneuvers — and that may explain why Russia has apparently tested a way to block GPS signals across the entire European continent.
Russia’s involvement and intentions have not been confirmed, but a new study by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Stanford University (via Ars Technica) makes a pretty strong case. It analyzes a series of powerful “interference events” across Europe, Greenland and Canada, based on data collected between 2019 and 2026.
These events affected the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) on which GPS relies, and may have been caused deliberately or as a result of natural events (such as atmospheric interference). This new study focuses on sharp, intense, regular bursts of interference that have lasted less than 10 seconds and hit the same frequencies.
The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, charts when and where these jamming signals have appeared. They have mostly appeared during business hours in Europe and generally on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, making GPS signals harder to lock onto and less reliable.
A potential source
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It took more work to figure out where the interference was coming from. With the help of a wider team, the researchers calculated the source of the jamming based on the times and locations of an event in February 2026. These calculations pointed to the Russian satellite Kosmos 2546 with an accuracy level of five meters (16.4 feet).
Further analysis suggests that the rest of the system to which Kosmos 2546 belongs – the Russian Edinaya Kosmicheskaya Sistema (EKS) – is behind the interference. EKS is Russia’s only early warning system, designed to detect the launch of ballistic missiles from anywhere on Earth, so in theory it is largely passive rather than active.
What we don’t know is why this happens. “I think this is a massive escalation of the background electronic warfare conflict that’s going on right now,” aerospace engineer Todd Humphreys, one of the researchers involved, told the science and education YouTube channel Veritasium in a detailed review of the study.
While the disruption seems deliberate, not everyone Veritasium spoke with is convinced that the actions are malicious. Other experts interviewed by The New York Times said they did not believe Russia would risk distracting its only early warning system with a secondary purpose.
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