Russia’s interference with satellites is inadvertently dragging commercial airliners into the conflict despite their decision to avoid Ukrainian airspace, a French official said Friday.
Russia’s attempts to jam satellites are interfering with planes’ navigation systems, with planes flying near the Black Sea, eastern Finland, and the Baltic Sea reporting alerts and disruptions, according to a French airline safety regulator. The jammers, meant to protect troops from GPS-guided missiles, are spilling over into scrambling nonmilitary planes, Benoit Roturier said.
“I don’t think the goal is to jam civil aviation at this stage,” Roturier said. “That is collateral damage.”
There haven’t been any serious problems due to backup systems, a measure that airlines need to consider bolstering, according to Roturier.
“All of Europe needs to prepare contingency plans for when these satellite systems are lost,” Roturier said. “For some countries closer to the front, who may be less advanced in putting in place contingency plans, the current situation has served to highlight the need. It’s a wake-up call.”
Ukraine is one of a handful of countries that has a level 1 “do not fly” designation, according to Safeairspace’s Conflict Zone and Risk Database, which pulls airspace risk warnings from around the world. Other countries listed are Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Libya.
A European Union Aviation Safety Agency report also flagged the airspace above Mediterranean countries and Northern Iraq as areas that have reported satellite jamming and spoofing, while acknowledging the jamming is not considered an “unsafe condition” that would require any kind of EU action.
The primary risk for planes in the area is that military forces could target them by accident and that a cyberattack could wipe out Ukraine’s air traffic control ability to communicate, according to the database.
Keeping Ukraine’s skies clear has been a top priority for Volodymyr Zelensky, the country’s president. He has repeatedly called on NATO and individualcountries to help enforce a no-fly zone — a move that countries have rejected as they fear entering into direct conflict with Russia.
While Zelensky eventually relented on requesting Western countries to intervene themselves, last week he blasted NATO for not providing more assistance in the form of munitions for Ukrainians to keep the skies safe.
“The Ukrainian sky has not been made safe from Russian missiles and bombs,” Zelensky said. “We have not received aircraft and modern anti-missile weapons. We have not received tanks, anti-ship equipment.”
Russia’s clunky attempts to jam Ukrainian satellites might have followed its realization that its own unencrypted use of cellphones was leading to the deaths of some of its most important battlefield commanders. Last month, Ukrainian forces tracked a Russian general’s location via a phone call and killed him and his staff.
Reporting by The Washington Examiner.
