Poland has been experiencing increasing disruptions to satellite navigation systems, including GPS, this summer, according to data from a monitoring station operated by Poland’s National Institute of Telecommunications.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
The data, which was provided to the Polish Press Agency, showed prolonged interruptions affecting all global navigation satellite system (GNSS) bands over the last few months.
Anomalies have been recorded regularly since January 2024, but since the beginning of 2026, their frequency and intensity have risen sharply.
In May and June, significant, long-lasting disruptions across all GNSS bands were recorded on around 70% of days. Days completely free of interference accounted for just 10% in May and 13% in June.
In the first 19 days of August, full-scale disruption was recorded on 63% of days in the month. In other words, navigation on smartphones and civilian receivers suffered issues, on average, on roughly every two out of three days.
Partial disturbances, affecting a single band, occurred on between a dozen and almost 30% of days over the summer.
The cause
The Institute of Telecommunications has said 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 constant and will persist as long as military activities requiring the transmission of jamming signals continue in the area.
Similar findings have emerged from independent measurements by companies such as Blue Dot Solutions.
In July 2026, stations in Pomerania recorded disruptions for almost 90 hours, accounting for more than 12-20% of the month, depending on the methodology used. In this case, the problem affected the L1 band, which is particularly important for civilian users.
The impacts are being felt far beyond people using navigation apps on their phones, who may encounter inaccurate positioning, loss of signal, or an inability to calculate a route.
Problems are also affecting urban and shared transportation systems, with the locations shown for city bikes, scooters, or vehicles potentially inaccurate. Recreational and commercial drone flights are also becoming more difficult, as the aircrafts can lose reliable positional information, according to the Interia news outlet.
The disruptions are also affecting shipping and aviation, with vessels at risk of displaying incorrect locations. On 21 August, the Polish minehunter ORP Albatros experienced GPS jamming during operations in the Baltic Sea, as NATO’s Joint Force Command Brunssum confirmed in a post on X.
Interia reported that experts from the Gdańsk University of Technology, the Maritime University of Gdynia, and the Institute of Telecommunications have for months been indicating that the main sources of interference and signal falsification (spoofing) are located in the Kaliningrad region.
Poland is one of the most exposed countries to the problem, as a significant part of its territory, especially at cruising altitude, falls within range of jamming systems from the area.
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 makes it possible to falsify signals over distances of up to 450 km, meaning it could potentially cover much of Poland, the Baltic states, and parts of the Nordic region.
The Institute of Telecommunications warned people against relying solely on their phone’s maps. It is instead advised that people use traditional navigation and orientation methods where possible, or to download 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.
GPS interference in Europe
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, dozens of similar incidents have been recorded in Europe, particularly in the Baltic, Nordic, and Black Sea regions.
Western officials and experts have repeatedly pointed to Russia, which claims the actions are taken to defend against Ukrainian drones. But Baltic and Scandinavian countries stress that the range and intensity of the interference go far beyond Russia’s borders and amount to a systematic provocation.
In one incident in September 2025, a Spanish military jet carrying Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles reported GPS interference during a flight near Kaliningrad as it made its way to Lithuania.
The aircraft’s systems detected an attempt to disrupt the signal but, thanks to military safeguards and backup systems, the flight was able to continue without any major issues.
In the same month, an aircraft carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen lost (or recorded severe disruption of) GPS signal during its approach to Plovdiv airport in Bulgaria.
Bulgarian authorities initially pointed to possible Russian interference. The aircraft landed safely using backup systems, but the incident nevertheless sparked a debate. Some flight-tracking data raised doubts about the scale of the signal loss, however.
A European problem
Baltic and Nordic countries have for years been warning about the growing problem of electronic interference, which has affected civil aviation, shipping, and drones.
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden have reported a several-fold increase in the number of incidents, while similar problems have also been noted around the Black Sea.
In response, NATO has said it is stepping up monitoring and efforts to counter flight disruptions, while experts have underlined the need to develop more resilient navigation and monitoring systems.