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Three Finnish airports mitigate Russian GPS interference with radio navigation

3 airports in Eastern Finland are reintroducing radio navigation equipment to help with aircraft landings throughout times that authorities believe Russia is hindering satellite navigation, their operators informed Reuters.

Finland thinks Russia is troubling signals used in navigation, the Worldwide Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Worldwide Positioning System (GPS), in eastern Finland and the Baltic Sea area, to safeguard its oil ports and other tactical properties from Ukrainian air campaign or drones.

Russia has rejected disrupting communication and satellite networks.

2 Finnish airports run by Finavia in the towns of Joensuu and Savonlinna, both about an hour's drive from the Russian border, presented refitted ground equipment in September, while another airport in Lappeenranta is preparing to do the same as soon as possible, the operators said.

The radio-based Range Measuring Devices, formerly widely used in air travel, provides an alternative technique method for airplane during GPS interference, stated Finavia's. head of infrastructure and security, Henri Hansson.

We have actually kept some earlier system facilities, even if it. has not necessarily remained in operational use. Now we have actually been. able to upgrade it to put it back into use, he told Reuters.

Hansson declined to comment on the expense of the upgrades.

Finavia reintroduced the devices after 2 domestic. flights of nationwide carrier Finnair to Joensuu needed to. be aborted in June and August due to GPS interference.

Various levels of GPS disturbance are discovered daily in. aviation in the nation, the Finnish Transportation and. Communications Company Traficom said, with the majority of reports coming. from southern Finland.

Ryanair has actually operated its regular flights to the. smaller sized Lappeenranta airport without interruptions, regardless of being. impacted by the signal interference, the airport's chief. executive Jukka Himanen stated.

A few private flights, with smaller sized devices, have actually been. cancelled or gone to an alternate airport due to disturbance,. he informed Reuters, adding the airport was preparing to include a. landing approach based upon radio navigation.

In April, Finnair paused some flights to Tartu in. eastern Estonia for a month for the same factor, but resumed. them in June after the Estonian airport set up a brand-new technique. option that did not require GPS signals.

Estonia, too, has implicated Russia of violating worldwide. airspace regulations by disrupting GPS signals.

(source: Reuters)