GLOBAL HAWK INCIDENT ⟩ Russia Interfered With the Operation of a US Surveillance Drone in Estonian Airspace

Photo: U.S. Air Force / AFP / Scanpix

16th September 2024, 11:13

The Estonian Air Force confirmed that a U.S. RQ-4B Global Hawk drone encountered signal interference in Estonian airspace on August 30, 2024. The drone landed safely despite the disruption. This interference, attributed to Russian electronic warfare, has recently impacted both military and civilian aviation across Northeastern Europe, particularly in the Baltic region.

Russian media reported on September 1 that Russian military personnel were able to interfere with U.S. military intelligence operations in Estonia. State media reported issues with the control of a strategic spy drone.

“The spy drone tirelessly looped along the Russian Federation's border from the Leningrad region to Pskov. Then, it suddenly signaled that it had lost contact with the operator and maneuvered chaotically for a while,” Russian media reported, without specifying when the incident occurred.

The drone in question was a U.S. Air Force RQ-4B Global Hawk.

“The device’s actions regained purpose, it returned to base, and landed in normal mode. Preliminary information suggests that the strange behavior of the Global Hawk was caused by the effects of Russian electronic warfare systems,” the report stated.

The article included a map showing the RQ-4B Global Hawk’s flight path, but no source for the information was provided, making it impossible to verify the accuracy of the depicted route.

A map showing the flight path of the U.S. Air Force's strategic drone RQ-4B Global Hawk over Estonia in the last days of August 2024. Photo: Telegram channel «Vojennõi obozrevatel» («Военный обозреватель»)

The Estonian newspaper Postimees reached out to the Estonian Ministry of Defense regarding the incident.

“NATO allies’ (unmanned) aircraft regularly conduct exercises in Estonian airspace, and such flights are coordinated in advance,” responded Estonian Air Force spokesperson Siim Verner Teder when asked whether the Ministry could confirm that the RQ-4B Global Hawk drone flew over Estonia last week.

“The United States’ RQ-4B Global Hawk flew in Estonian airspace on final days of August, and to our knowledge, they experienced communication problems,” said the Estonian Air Force representative.

The RQ-4 Global Hawk is a strategic unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by the United States for intelligence purposes. It was designed by the American company Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical. The first flight took place on February 28, 1998, from a U.S. Air Force base in California. The first Global Hawk was delivered to the U.S. Navy in 2004 and began performing combat missions in March 2006. The Global Hawk is the first unmanned aerial vehicle to receive approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to independently carry out flight missions and fly in U.S. civilian airspace without additional notification.

Since February 24, 2022, RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles have been continuously monitoring Russia's border areas and regularly conducting surveillance flights over the Black Sea. They are in use in the United States, Australia, Germany, and South Korea.

According to public sources, drones of this model have crashed at least nine times. All accidents except one were caused by technical malfunctions. In 2019, Iranian air defense shot down an RQ-4 Global Hawk with a surface-to-air missile over the Strait of Hormuz.

On March 14, 2023, a Russian Su-27 fighter jet struck and damaged a U.S. drone, which then crashed into international waters in the Black Sea. However, the incident involved a different U.S. Air Force device, the MQ-9 Reaper.

Regarding the extent of the negative impact of the electronic warfare systems used by Russia in areas bordering Estonia, Air Force spokesperson Siim Verner Teder stated that this is a shared problem for both military and civilian aviation in the EU.

“Russian radio interference disrupts all aircraft flying in Estonian airspace due to GPS signal jamming. Military aviation uses alternative navigation tools in its operations, and pilots are trained and use various procedures and equipment to mitigate the risks posed by electronic warfare. As a result, the threat to military aviation activities has been minimized,” said the representative of the Estonian Air Force.

Aviation expert currently employed in Iceland, Andrei Menšenin, also commented on the situation.

“Indeed, the Russian Federation is capable of disrupting the control of such an unmanned aerial vehicle in the skies over Estonia. Can such a drone be hit and damaged in Estonia? No. Can it be transported to the territory of the Russian Federation? No. The flight can be temporarily disrupted, but the device will eventually return home. GPS spoofing (falsification) is not happening for the first time. Judging by the flightradar24 map, which shows where coordinates changed, Estonia's territory is almost entirely exposed to this effect,” said the aviation expert.

On the flightradar24 map, the areas where aircraft navigation issues are currently observed are marked in red. As of September 2, 2024, Estonian territory is almost entirely within this zone. Photo: flightradar24.com

"Disruption of the global navigation system, or GPS spoofing, has been happening for several months. And it affects everyone flying using GPS. Who is behind this? It's hard to accuse anyone without evidence. But yes, Russia is next to Estonia," added Andrei Menšenin.

Media has previously reported that Russia deployed electronic warfare systems near the borders of the Baltic states at the beginning of 2024, following a successful drone attack on Russian ports along the Baltic Sea.

The problem of jamming and signals interference in Estonian airspace was publicly acknowledged by the Chief of the Estonian Defense Forces, Martin Herem. "Someone is causing this, and we believe it's Russia," Herem told journalists in January. "I think they are learning and testing us," he added.

In the spring of 2024, navigation problems began affecting civilian aircraft in the Baltic States. The number of flights encountering issues due to electronic warfare systems reached into the hundreds.

Russian interference had previously caused disruptions in air traffic between Helsinki and Tartu, until Estonia upgraded its airport navigation systems.

After that, Finnish aircraft began experiencing issues in their own airspace. In June, Postimees reported that GPS satellite navigation disruptions had 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 military aircraft over the Baltics. And not only military aircraft— year ago, Vladimir Putin's plane was spotted near the Estonian border.

Terms

surveillance