When I boarded a flight to Helsinki and back again last month, I did so without any fear, as I knew the pilots were highly skilled and up-to-date with their training. That’s a good thing becautilize Finland is one of half a dozen countries currently experiencing an extraordinary surge in GPS interference.
According to the Swedish National Television, 122,607 flights in Swedish, Finnish, Polish and Baltic airspace were affected by GPS disturbance during the first four months of 2025. In April, more than 27 percent of all flights were affected, and in some places, the figure was up to 42 percent.
It didn’t utilize to be like this. Though most countries experience occasional GPS blips, constant disturbances aren’t a regular part of daily life in any peaceful part of the world. But in aviation — and shipping — 2023 was the last somewhat normal year for the Baltic Sea region, at least in terms of GPS.
That year, the Swedish Transport Agency received reports of 55 incidents resulting from both GPS jamming — which blocks crucial positioning signals — and GPS manipulation, which distorts them. Since then, the interference has grown at a mind-boggling rate, reaching 495 cases in 2024. And during the first four months of this year, the Swedish Transport Agency received a staggering 733 reports of incidents in Swedish airspace.
The authorities know the source of the disturbances: They’ve traced them to devices in Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Smolensk and Rostov. The latter three cities have military installations, and Kaliningrad is practically an arms depot. Blocking or manipulating GPS supports Russia protect such installations, presumably against Ukrainian drones. But the scale of this jamming and spoofing is massive, and it poses risks to civilian pilots, airline and shipping crews, passengers and anyone else who depfinishs on the global positioning system.
Of course, pilots are trained to smanually operate their aircraft whenever such problems occur, but GPS exists for a reason: It creates flying safer and more efficient. Without it, pilots necessary a line of sight, and they necessary to be able to interact with systems on the ground. That often means having to wait to land, which also creates additional carbon emissions.
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