Russia may have interfered with work of US spy drone in Estonian airspace

RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle. Photo: Handout / AFP / Scanpix

The Ministry of Defense confirmed to Postimees information about problems with a US Air Force drone in the sky over Estonia.

The details of the incident are not disclosed, but it is known that the strategic reconnaissance drone was able to land despite the disturbances and that the problem concerns both military and civil aviation in the Baltic region, the daily writes.

Russian media announced on Sept. 1 that the Russian military was able to interfere with the work of American military intelligence in Estonia. State media reported problems with the controllability of the strategic spy drone.

«The spy drone tirelessly made loops along the border of the Russian Federation from the Leningrad region to Pskov. It then suddenly signaled that it had lost contact with the operator and maneuvered chaotically for some time,» Russian media wrote without specifying when the incident took place.

According to Russian media, the incident concerned the RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of the US Air Force.

«The operation of the device acquired a meaningful nature again, it returned to the base and landed in the usual mode. According to preliminary data, the strange behavior of the Global Hawk is explained by the effect of the means of radio-electronic warfare of Russia,» the announcement said.

A map showing the flight path of the RQ-4B Global Hawk was attached to the article without crediting the source of the information, so the accuracy of the depicted route cannot be verified.

Rus.Postimees contacted the Estonian Ministry of Defense regarding the incident.

«NATO allies' (unmanned) aerial vehicles regularly practice in Estonian airspace and such flights have been previously coordinated,» Estonian Air Force spokesperson Siim Verner Teder said in response to the question whether the Ministry of Defense can confirm that the RQ-4B Global Hawk drone flew over Estonia last week.

At the same time, Teder confirmed that there were communication problems with the reconnaissance drone.

«The US' RQ-4B Global Hawk flew in Estonian airspace last week, and as far as we know, it experienced communication problems. The embassy of the United States in Estonia can comment in more detail,» he added.

Rus.Postimees contacted the US embassy for comments. The portal will publish the answers as they come in.

Since Feb. 24, 2022, RQ-4 Global Hawk UAVs have continuously monitored Russia's border areas and regularly performed reconnaissance flights over the Black Sea. They are used in the US, Australia, Germany and South Korea.

According to public sources, drones of this model have crashed at least nine times. All but one of the crashes were due to technical failures. In 2019, the Iranian Air Defense Forces shot down an RQ-4 Global Hawk with a surface-to-air missile over the Strait of Hormuz.

As for the extent of the negative impact of the electronic warfare systems used by Russia in the areas bordering Estonia, this is a common problem of both EU military and civil aviation, according to Siim Verner Teder.

«Russian radio interference disturbs all aircraft flying in Estonian airspace due to jamming of the GPS signal. Military aviation uses alternative navigation tools in its operations, and pilots have trained and use various procedures and equipment to avoid threats arising from electronic warfare. As a result, the threat to military aviation has been reduced to a minimum,» he added.

Andrei Menshenin, an aviation expert based in Iceland, issued a comment on the situation to Rus.Postimees.

«Indeed, the Russian Federation is capable of disrupting the control of such an unmanned aerial vehicle in the sky above Estonia. Is it possible to capture and injure such a drone in Estonia? No. Is it possible to deliver it to the territory of the Russian Federation? No. The flight can be temporarily disrupted, but then the device will still return home. GPS spoofing is not happening for the first time. Judging by the flightradar24 map, where the locations of coordinate changes are noted, the territory of Estonia is almost completely open to this influence,» the aviation expert said.

«Disruption of the global navigation system, or GPS spoofing, has been happening for several months. And it affects everyone who flies using GPS. Who is behind it? Without evidence, it is difficult to accuse anyone of anything. But yes, Russia is next to Estonia,» Menshenin added.

Rus.Postimees reported that Russia installed radio-electronic warfare equipment along the borders of the Baltic states already at the beginning of 2024 after a successful drone attack on Russian ports along the Baltic Sea.

The problem was publicly acknowledged by the head of the Estonian defense forces at the time, Gen. Martin Herem.

«Somebody is causing this, and we think it's Russia,» Herem told reporters in January, implying that Moscow was toying with disruptions over a possible future conflict with NATO. «I think they're learning and testing.»

In the spring of 2024, mass navigation problems of civil aircraft began in the Baltic states. The number of flights exposed to the operation of radio-electronic warfare equipment reached hundreds.

Russia's intervention previously caused disruptions in air traffic between Helsinki and Tartu until the Estonian airport's navigation systems were updated.

After that, problems involving Finnish planes started in the Finnish airspace. In June, Rus.Postimees reported that GPS satellite navigation disturbances prevented a Finnair plane from landing in North Karelia. Similar problems were observed in the same region of Finland in August.

Over the past two and a half years, NATO air forces have regularly observed Russian warplanes over the Baltic states. And not just warplanes. A year ago, Vladimir Putin's plane was spotted near the Estonian border.