Researchers say mysterious second-long bursts of GPS interference detected across Europe appear to come from Russian EKS early warning satellitesmaking it “a rare example of human-caused GPS jamming from space,” Ars Technica reports. The signals may be evidence of space jamming capability, short satellite communications or something else, but experts say they raise troubling questions about whether GPS disruption could eventually become a continental-scale weapon. From the report: The discovery arose from an investigation. detailed in a June 2 preprint article 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 examining public data from ground stations with global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers, they identified a high-power interference pattern that lasts less than 10 seconds at a time but is simultaneously detectable by ground stations across Europe, from Norway to Spain and Poland, and even reaching as far as Greenland and Canada.
Analyzing ground station data from January 2019 to April 2026, the researchers found 75 days with at least one widespread GNSS interference event that overlapped with the GPS frequency band L1 centered at 1575.42 megahertz. This represents the primary band used for signal transmission by the US-made GPS satellite constellation and the GNSS constellations of other countries. These interference patterns occurred primarily on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during business hours in Europe, Humphreys told the Veritasium YouTube Channel. Because this “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 Earth.
[…] In the Veritasium video, Humphreys speculated that the Russians may have been testing the satellites’ GPS jamming capabilities only briefly on a neighboring frequency adjacent to the typical GPS band. “And then in the future, when there’s a hot conflict, they’ll go ahead and tune their transmitter to the GPS band, but it’s much more damaging now that it’s right in that band,” he said. Incidentally, the raw data also revealed a second burst of interference from Russian satellites in a lower frequency band used by the Chinese BeiDou navigation system. “I can no longer say with confidence that this is accidental,” Humphreys told Veritasium. He also described the silent demonstration of Russian satellites as a “massive escalation in the electronic warfare background conflict that is occurring right now.” Richard Bowden, head of the safe and resilient PNT division of the technology multinational GMV in Spain, wrote in a LinkedIn comment: “These signals are undoubtedly intentional and are placed on or around GNSS signals, and have the potential to disrupt legitimate use of GNSS services. But at least on our part, we cannot be sure that they are intentionally malicious or intended as an electronic alert. [electronic warfare] weapon.”
