An experimental navigation satellite operated by US space company Xona Space Systems has produced the first satellite-level measurement of GPS signal interference across a vast geographic corridor stretching from France in the west to the borders of Pakistan in the east, with findings that significantly exceeded what the company’s founders had anticipated when they first turned on the receiver aboard their Pulsar-0 spacecraft.
Xona Space Systems launched Pulsar-0 to test technology for its planned Pulsar constellation of 300 satellites intended to orbit at around 500 kilometres altitude, with signals 100 times stronger than those of GPS satellites, making them less susceptible to jamming. The satellite also carries a GPS receiver to ensure the two systems can work together, and when the Xona team activated that receiver months after launch, they found GPS interference across Europe and parts of the Middle East significantly exceeded the expected scale. Kaz Gunning, one of Xona Space Systems’ founders, described the findings to Space.com, noting that when flying over North America the signal is clean and consistent, but as soon as operations begin above Europe, something is clearly wrong. In the most affected areas, Pulsar-0 measured signal strength of only 10 decibels against the normal reading of 40 decibels.
The geographic scale of the interference has direct implications for satellites operating in low Earth orbit across the affected corridor. Satellites in LEO use GPS to time-synchronise their operations and determine their position in space, meaning the interference prevents altitude determination, accurate positioning, and the ability to point telecommand antennas at ground stations. Earth observation satellites trying to position themselves to capture images over specific regions are particularly affected, with Gunning noting that the GPS capability is lost as soon as a satellite passes over these regions. The practical consequence is that even satellites with no connection to military operations are being operationally compromised by jamming intended for ground-level navigation systems.
A parallel academic investigation led by Todd Humphreys of the University of Texas, Austin, has traced a significant portion of the continental-scale jamming to Kosmos 2546, part of a constellation of Russian military early-warning satellites used to detect ballistic missile launches, with researchers documenting 75 instances of wide-area interference between January 2019 and April 2026. The interference events lasted less than 10 seconds each, occurred predominantly during business hours on specific weekdays, and were concentrated within a narrow frequency slice matching GPS and Europe’s GNSS satellite navigation system, leading Humphreys to conclude the disruptions represent scheduled tests of a jamming capability rather than accidental emissions. The researchers found the same Russian constellation has been impacting China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system in an almost identical way since June 2020, suggesting the capability is designed to deny both American GPS and Chinese navigation systems across continental-sized areas simultaneously. The Pulsar-0 data and the academic research together represent the most comprehensive picture yet of how extensively military GPS jamming, driven by the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, has already degraded the satellite navigation environment across a corridor that now extends from Western Europe to South Asia’s doorstep.
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