GPS Jamming Disrupts NATO's Eastern Border
Satellite navigation interference struck nearly the full length of NATO's eastern frontier on Nov. 3, according to a map of aircraft data.
Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Cybersecurity
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Satellite navigation interference hit almost the entire length of NATO's eastern border on Nov. 3, with the heaviest disruption running in a nearly continuous band from the southern Baltic Sea to the western Black Sea. ItaMilRadar published a map built with AirNav Radar data showing aircraft reporting degraded GPS and other satellite signals.
Why it matters
The disruption spans multiple NATO member states, and Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden and Germany have described the interference as deliberate hybrid warfare. Some researchers link it to Russian military jamming intended to protect bases from Ukrainian drones.
The map shows the locations where aircraft lost navigation accuracy, with the densest interference areas over the Baltic coast near Russia's Kaliningrad exclave. A research team located jamming and spoofing sources at two coastal sites in Kaliningrad, though the operators behind the signals have not been publicly identified.
The players
ItaMilRadar
An Italian military aviation tracking account that publishes flight and radar analysis, which posted the map of the Nov. 3 interference.
AirNav Radar
A flight-tracking service whose aircraft data was used to build the map showing degraded satellite navigation across NATO's eastern border.
The details
The heaviest disruption ran through Lithuania, eastern Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, and the map was published by ItaMilRadar on Nov. 4. Researchers located jamming and spoofing sources at two coastal sites in Kaliningrad, and a second jamming hotspot was identified near St. Petersburg.
Timeline
Early 2025: About 123,000 flights were affected by interference in the first four months.
2025: Eight European countries filed a UN complaint over the interference.
September: A Russian drone flew into Romania before crashing in Moldova.
Nov. 3: Satellite navigation interference hit NATO's eastern border.
Nov. 4: ItaMilRadar posted the jamming map.
The Tech Race
The November 3 interference continues a pattern of satellite navigation disruption that eight European countries raised with the United Nations in 2025. Its reach across nearly the full eastern NATO border shows the problem has widened rather than receded since those complaints.
Travelers and pilots flying near the affected band may face degraded GPS and satellite navigation accuracy. Anyone relying on satellite positioning in the region should expect possible inaccuracies until the interference stops.
The takeaway
Satellite navigation is a shared resource that can be disrupted far from its source, so governments and aviation users are increasingly watching signal integrity as closely as physical security. Monitoring independent flight-data maps is one practical way the public can track where interference is occurring.
Further reading
For more on the security threats behind signal disruption, see the Cybersecurity section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Defence Blog.
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