Russia has adopted jamming to secure its airspace against long-range precision weapons. It happens after Ukraine carried out drone attacks against military targets deep inside Russia, according to Faktisk.no. This GPS jamming also affects Finnmark, something the newspaper iFinnmark mentioned earlier this week. – We are experiencing that we are losing GPS signals in Eastern Finnmark and have several reports that confirm this. This is what Nikolai Hamre, flight commander at Babcock, tells news. It is the company that is responsible for flying air ambulances in Norway. – We have not received confirmation that it comes from the Russian side. We only know that we lose satellite signals from GPS and GPS-based navigation systems when we are in eastern parts of Finnmark. Flight commander at Babcock, Nikolai Hamre, says that there are many indications that the GPS jamming they are experiencing in Eastern Finnmark comes from the east. Photo: Private – There are many indications that it comes from Russia, but we cannot conclude on that quite yet, he emphasizes. But he has noticed one thing. – The further west we fly, the higher up in the air we experience the jamming. This may indicate that we are exposed to ground-based GPS jamming from the east. Well prepared Hamre states that they have experienced GPS jamming at regular intervals in recent years, but that the cases have increased sharply in the last couple of months. Widerøe experiences the same. In December alone, the airline experienced loss of GPS signals in Finnmark 27 times, according to iFinnmark. By comparison, the number was down to two to three cases a month before the war. Hamre assures that they are well prepared for the situation in Eastern Finnmark. – We have good procedures for this and backup systems that work as they should. The pilots know that it can happen in these areas. In addition, we have other navigation aids to get us down if we get jammed, says flight commander Hamre. Delays In the worst case, jamming can mean that the air ambulance does not reach the patients, or that they are delayed. – A consequence of this is that we often have to fly longer. So far, fortunately, we have only experienced being delayed by a few minutes. And should we lose the GPS signals in a critical phase, it is an additional burden, but it is manageable. The air ambulance is experiencing more and more problems with their GPS signals. Photo: Jan Harald Tomassen / news Hamre explains that the closer to the ground they lose the GPS signals, the worse it is. – Until now, we have only experienced jamming at a relatively high altitude. It has not happened close to the ground during a GPS approach. Then it is more critical. At low altitude, it can in the worst case prevent us from entering airports where there is a patient waiting. – We have not yet experienced not being able to reach a patient due to jamming. Big rise Senior engineer in the National Communications Authority (Nkom), Nicolai Gerrard, says that there has been a significant increase in GPS jamming in Eastern Finnmark since the end of February this year. In the last two months it has peaked. – Especially through November, there was a lot of activity. We then recorded 22 days of cases in Eastern Finnmark. Nkom has carried out several measurements in Eastern Finnmark and close to the border with Russia. Based on the findings, most indications are that the GPS interference comes from the Russian side. – Yes, we have an idea about that. We cannot say that 100 percent, since we only have the authority to make measurements on Norwegian territory. But that is what the measurements indicate. Nikolai Gerrard in Nkom says that there is an increase in the number of GPS jamming in Eastern Finnmark in 2022. Photo: David Jensen – How likely is it that this does not come from Russia? – When we receive the reports, we work to rule out various sources. In the vast majority of cases, potential other causes are ruled out. Although we cannot say anything 100 per cent certain, we are quite sure that this comes from somewhere outside Norwegian authority. Increase after February In 2022, Nkom has recorded 93 days of GPS jamming. There are more cases than in the years between 2017 and 2021: – There has not been a perfect overlap with February 24 when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started, but we have registered a significant increase in GPS jamming in the same period after the invasion, says Gerrard adds: – We have seen similar increases in the past, for example during the NATO exercise Trident Juncture in 2018, but not to the extent we are now seeing.
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The air ambulance in Finnmark probably exposed to Russian GPS jamming – news Troms and Finnmark
