Russian satellites may have the ability to block GPS signals on a continental scale, according to tests from a group of scientists.
While Moscow has repeatedly denied that it has carried out hostile actions such as GPS jamming and spoofing, Western intelligence authorities have traced local signal blackouts back to Russian territories in the past.
But a paper from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Stanford University in California claims that a small constellation of Russian satellites in the Molniya (‘lightning’) orbit could have the capability of causing GPS signal drops on a continental scale. The Molniya orbit is a unique, egg-shaped orbit used by Russia in the past for military, communications and spy satellites.
The paper says: “On scores of occasions since 2019, all tracked signals on the GPS L1 frequency at IGS reference stations across Europe, Greenland and Canada simultaneously saw a sudden brief drop. The onset of the disruption was synchronous to within the...