The European Union will place additional satellites in low Earth orbit to bolster resilience against GPS interference and improve detection of spoofing attempts, EU Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius announced on X.
Kubilius stressed that GPS jamming and spoofing pose a growing threat to aviation, maritime transport, and other critical sectors across the bloc. “Our EU Galileo space project can help. We already provide an authentication service to detect spoofing, and we will expand the number of low-orbit satellites to enhance reliability and improve interference detection,” he wrote.
The announcement followed a serious incident on Sunday involving European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s aircraft, which experienced GPS disruption en route to Bulgaria. Local authorities suspect Russia was behind the interference. “We can confirm there was GPS jamming, but the aircraft landed safely,” European Commission deputy spokesperson Arianna Podestà told POLITICO.
According to the Financial Times, the jet was forced to land at Plovdiv Airport using paper navigation charts after its GPS system failed completely. Three people briefed on the matter said electronic navigation systems went offline during the plane’s final approach. “GPS across the entire airport area was cut off,” one source said, describing the disruption as unusually severe.
After circling for nearly an hour, the pilot ultimately carried out a manual landing using paper-based charts. Another EU official later described the incident as “undeniable interference.” The episode has heightened concerns within Brussels about the vulnerability of European infrastructure to electronic warfare tactics and accelerated calls for strengthening the bloc’s space-based defenses.
