Three Finnish airports mitigate Russian GPS interference with radio navigation

Three airports in Eastern Finland are reintroducing radio navigation equipment to facilitate aircraft landings during times that authorities believe Russia is interfering with satellite navigation, their operators told Reuters. Finland believes Russia is disturbing signals used in navigation, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Global Positioning System (GPS), in eastern Finland and the Baltic Sea region, to protect its oil ports and other strategic assets from Ukrainian air strikes or drones. Russia has denied interfering with communication and satellite networks. Two Finnish airports operated by Finavia in the towns of Joensuu and Savonlinna, both about an hour's drive from the Russian border, introduced refitted ground equipment in September, while another airport in Lappeenranta is planning to do the same as soon as possible, the operators said. The radio-based Distance Measuring Equipment, previously widely used in aviation, provides "an alternative approach method" for aircraft during GPS interference, said Finavia's head of infrastructure and security, Henri Hansson. "We have kept some earlier system infrastructure, even if it has not necessarily been in operational use. Now we have been able to update it to put it back into use," he told Reuters. Hansson declined to comment on the cost of the upgrades. Finavia reintroduced the equipment after two domestic flights of national carrier Finnair to Joensuu had to be aborted in June and August due to GPS interference.<br/>