Interference is one of the major challenges in satellite navigation. Jamming (broadcasting on the same frequency as satnav signals to disrupt them), spoofing (sending fake signals to mislead users) and meaconing (rebroadcasting intercepted signals in a misleading way) can disrupt critical systems and pose a serious security risk. Attacks affecting aviation, for example, are being registered daily, also in Europe. For example, Finnair has suspended flights to Tartu, Estonia, due to severe interferences.

To learn more about interferences, how to tackle them and how to make systems more robust, hundreds of participants meet each year near the village of Bleik, on the island of Andøya, Norway, for the world’s largest real-life jamming test: Jammertest.

For the second consecutive year, ESA Navigation joined Jammertest next to authorities, international technology suppliers and researchers, to experiment with navigation equipment and evaluate its response to different satnav hacking techniques.

This year’s test catalogue was extensive, with low and high-power jammers, test cases on aviation and UAVs, a variety of transmitter antenna systems, stationary simulators and a moving spoofer. The experiments spanned three test areas.

ESA’s sophisticated setup included a testbed navigation van equipped with three types of antennae: high-precision, antenna array and dual polarisation (all manufactured in the EU) as well as a fixed station.