GPS jamming not affecting ships in Gulf of Finland

Recent incidents of GPS signal interference have not affected ships and vessels off of the coast of Estonia, Kristjan Truu, director of the Transport Administration's Maritime Service, said on Tuesday.
"There have been no reports to the Transport Administration about disturbances of satellite navigation systems in the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland," Truu told ERR.
The Gulf of Finland is constantly monitored and no anomalies have been detected so far, he said.
Monitoring is carried out continuously so dangerous situations do not arise.
"One of the major problems in shipping is, for example, ship collisions, and groundings. We try to prevent and anticipate them in every possible way. Including in cases where there are now problems with satellite navigation systems. And on the other hand, ships themselves have many different devices to ensure navigation safety, including the use of different navigational aids when navigating in coastal waters. Larger ships have radars on board and similar navigation charts," Truu said.

The director said ships use several navigation systems, such as Galileo, not only GPS. "A variety of satellite navigation solutions are still in use and are used by ships. If one system doesn't work, another will," he said.
"And if there is no satellite communication at all, i.e. there are no signals coming from the satellite navigation systems, then other solutions are used, including visual sighting, radar, etc," Truu added.
Other systems, such as the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which is related to satellite navigation systems, also monitor the situation every day.
"And another traffic management tool is radar, which monitors where ships are moving from the shore through a radar image. And now, if anything interferes with the signal from the satellite navigation system, including the GPS signal, the radar image will not be affected and the radar image will still be clearly visible to vessel traffic controllers, who will also be able to steer and direct vessel traffic," said Truu.

Warships have jammed GPS in the past
Deputy Secretary General for Maritime and Water Affairs at the Ministry of Climate Kaupo Läänerand said GPS disturbances have been recorded in the past in Estonian waters.
"Warships have been jamming civilian GPS signals in the course of their operations, but duplicated equipment and good training can reduce the effects of jamming," he said.
Läänerand said if satellite navigation systems are disrupted in coastal waters, there is a risk that the ship's position and its image on the map do not match.
"This can cause a ship to run aground, endangering lives and the marine environment. Disturbance of international traffic in Estonia's exclusive economic zone could also lead to collisions. In addition, hydrographic operations, maritime operations requiring high positioning accuracy and AIS information used by traffic managers and other vessels are disrupted," Läänerand said.
GPS signal interference has been reported in the region for several months and has been blamed on Russia trying to protect its critical infrastructure from attack. Finnish airline Finnair pulled its Helsinki-Tartu flights on Monday after several planes were unable to land. The company and Tartu Airport are seeking a solution to restart the connection.
This article was updated to add comments from Kaupo Läänerand.
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Editor: Aleksander Krjukov, Helen Wright