Report: Extremely active GPS jamming in the area of ​​the Romanian coast

The South-East of Romania, parts of the Moldova area and the entire Romanian coast from the Black Sea are among the most affected regions in Europe in terms of GPS jamming, interferences that affect the navigation systems of commercial airplanes on a daily basis. Currently, 90% of false GPS signals concentrated in eastern Romania originate from Crimea and affect almost all air traffic connecting the European Union to Asia, according to a report published by OPS Group, an OSINT analysis group, in collaboration with institutions such as the British Ministry of Defence, NASA and Israeli cybersecurity experts, Digi 24 reports.

“Region of information related to the Bucharest-Romania flight. The south-eastern quadrant of the FIR (Flight Information Region, n.r.) registers 90% of false signals, in the area between Brașov, Bucharest and Constanța. It particularly affects aircraft traffic transiting between the EU and Asia. The false signals point in particular to Simferopol,” said a wide-ranging report published last month and written by experts in aviation, air navigation, GPS signals, in which institutions such as Israel’s National Cyber ​​Directorate, the British Ministry of Defense, the Air Force collaborated Royalties of UK (RAF), NASA or US Space Command.In the case of Romania, a number of 231 flights experienced false GPS signals (“spoofing”) between July 15 and August 15, 2024, according to the OPS Group report.

However, Romanian Minister of Transport, Sorin Grindeanu, recently claimed that “incidents such as the loss of the GPS signal do not affect the safety of flights”.

“From the point of view of the safety of air navigation, incidents such as the loss of the GPS signal do not affect the safety of flights, because in air navigation conventional means are used, provided by ROMATSA, and they are resilient to jamming of the GPS/CNSS signal”, it is said he says in a written response by the Minister of Transport, Sorin Grindeanu, to a question asked in Parliament on this topic by the National Liberal Party (PNL).

At the same time, the Ministry of Transport also stated that “aircraft pilots are informed in real time in the event of degradation of the GNSS signal”.

The reaction of the Romanian authorities is yet contradicted by the OPS Group report.

“Overall, the working group (of experts who wrote the report) appreciates that the impact of GPS jamming on the safety of flights and air operations is extremely high. The task force is extremely concerned about the overall impact that GPS jamming has on flight safety,” said the report published last month by the OPS Group.

At the same time, the report states that no case has been identified so far in which a commercial plane was directly “targeted” by this type of electronic warfare.

Instead, “with the approach of winter, we will move from weather conditions characterized predominantly by fair weather to bad, frigid weather with ice deposition, a change that will lead to an increase in risk factors,” the report says related to the way where GPS jamming affects civil aircraft.

“In order to warn aircraft in time for situations in which GPS signals are jammed, ROMATSA implements a system for monitoring the satellite signal and detecting interference with the useful signal in airport terminal areas”, reads the response published by the Romanian Ministry of Transport.

In January 2024, 300 civilian flights were affected daily by GPS jamming. In August 2024, the number rose to 1,500 affected flights per day, according to the OPS Group report.

A year ago, the former Chief of Staff of the Romanian Army, General Daniel Petrescu, drew attention to the fact that Russia is “actively and constantly” jamming the GPS communications of ships in Romanian territorial waters, which causes the risk of collisions, and Romania and NATO must prepare for a long-term confrontation with the regime of the Russian Federation.

GPS jamming is directly related to conflict zones and is particularly used to counter drones or smart munitions that use GPS navigation systems to locate the target. Once activated, this type of jamming also automatically affects the navigation systems of civilian commercial aircraft or ships in the area.

According to maps updated daily by GPS Jam, the most active areas of electronic jamming are in Ukraine, Crimea, the Black Sea, the eastern Mediterranean, Israel, Lebanon, but also on the border between India and Pakistan.

Currently, according to the latest GPS Jam data, the areas in Romania most affected by jamming or the emission of false GPS data are the counties of Galați, Tulcea Constanța, Iaşi and Vaslui.