Poland has been grappling with increasingly severe disruptions to satellite navigation this summer, with GPS signals failing or being falsified on a near-daily basis. Data from a monitoring station run by Poland's National Institute of Telecommunications, shared with the Polish Press Agency, shows prolonged outages affecting all global navigation satellite system (GNSS) bands since early 2024. But the frequency and intensity have spiked dramatically since the start of 2026.
In May and June, significant, long-lasting disruptions across all GNSS bands were recorded on roughly 70% of days. Days entirely free of interference were rare—just 10% in May and 13% in June. The trend has continued into August: full-scale jamming was observed on 63% of days in the first 19 days, meaning smartphone users and civilian receivers faced navigation errors, lost signals, or route calculation failures on average every two out of three days. Partial disturbances, affecting a single band, occurred on between a dozen and nearly 30% of days over the summer.
External source in the Baltic
The Institute of Telecommunications has stated that the source is external and linked to the activity of electronic warfare systems in the Baltic Sea region. Experts stress that the disruptions are not a temporary glitch but a persistent condition that will last as long as military operations requiring jamming signals continue in the area.
Independent measurements corroborate the official findings. In July 2026, stations in Pomerania recorded disruptions for almost 90 hours—accounting for 12–20% of the month, depending on methodology. The problem primarily affected the L1 band, which is crucial for civilian users.
The impact extends far beyond drivers relying on navigation apps. Urban and shared transport systems are affected, with city bikes, scooters, and vehicles showing inaccurate locations. Recreational and commercial drone flights have become more difficult, as the aircraft can lose reliable positional information, according to the Interia news outlet.
Shipping and aviation are also at risk. On 21 August, the Polish minehunter ORP Albatros experienced GPS jamming during operations in the Baltic Sea, as confirmed by NATO's Joint Force Command Brunssum in a post on X. Vessels may display incorrect positions, posing hazards in busy waters.
Experts from the Gdańsk University of Technology, the Maritime University of Gdynia, and the Institute of Telecommunications have for months pointed to the Kaliningrad region as the main source of both jamming and spoofing—the latter involving the transmission of false signals. Poland is particularly exposed because a large part of its territory, especially at cruising altitude, falls within range of jamming systems based there.
Lithuania reported in 2026 that spoofing infrastructure in Kaliningrad had been significantly expanded, with the number of antennas increasing from just a few at the start of 2025 to several dozen. This reportedly allows signal falsification over distances of up to 450 km, potentially covering much of Poland, the Baltic states, and parts of the Nordic region.
The Institute of Telecommunications has advised people not to rely solely on their phone's maps. It recommends using traditional navigation and orientation methods where possible, or downloading maps for offline use in advance. In the longer term, Poland is developing its own monitoring systems, including a portal based on the ASG-EUPOS network and a planned network of sensors run by the Polish Space Agency.
A wider European concern
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, dozens of similar incidents have been recorded across Europe, particularly in the Baltic, Nordic, and Black Sea regions. Western officials and experts have repeatedly attributed the interference to Russia, which claims the actions are defensive measures against Ukrainian drones. But Baltic and Scandinavian countries argue that the range and intensity go far beyond Russia's stated needs and amount to systematic provocation.
In September 2025, a Spanish military jet carrying Defence Minister Margarita Robles reported GPS interference near Kaliningrad while en route to Lithuania. The aircraft's systems detected the attempt to disrupt the signal, but military safeguards and backup systems allowed the flight to continue without major issues.
That same month, an aircraft carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen lost or experienced severe disruption of its GPS signal during approach to Plovdiv airport in Bulgaria. Bulgarian authorities initially pointed to possible Russian interference. The aircraft landed safely using backup systems, but the incident sparked debate, with some flight-tracking data raising doubts about the scale of the signal loss.
Baltic and Nordic countries have for years warned about the growing problem of electronic interference, which has affected civil aviation, shipping, and drones. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden have reported similar patterns, and the issue has become a recurring topic in NATO discussions. The situation in Poland is a stark reminder that the war in Ukraine has spillover effects far beyond the front lines, with civilian infrastructure increasingly caught in the crossfire of electronic warfare.
