A photo of the Tobol system with the large satellite dish at the Kaliningrad base.
A secret weapon used by Russia to jam signals may be behind electronic attacks facing commercial flights while flying over the Baltic Sea. Accordingly the sun, it is called Tobol and was previously used to jam the signals of ships on NATO’s eastern flank. The outlet added that Tobol is believed to be held in a Russian military base in Kaliningrad, between Lithuania and Poland. Electronic attacks have affected the satellite navigation (satnav) of thousands of flights, making it difficult to navigate aircraft routes.
the sun A large satellite dish mounted on the ground at the Kaliningrad base has been carrying pictures claiming it is part of the Tobol, but there has been no official confirmation that it is actually a Russian secret weapon.
The outlet also said there are 10 such devices across Russia.
By jamming satellite signals, it could confuse the weapons and prevent Russian bases from being targeted by NATO missiles. However, this cannot prevent the missiles from exploding.
Explain how jamming works, The Washington Post said that this happens in two ways: in space, by directly targeting the satellite, and on the ground, where weapons can target receivers. In the first type of jamming, a signal is mixed with the original transmission, which distorts the information received by all users of that satellite.
This is how Tobol works, the outlet quoted researcher Bart Hendricks as saying.
In January of this year, Erik Kanike of Estonia-based software company Sensescu claimed on X that Tobol has widespread GPS jammers affecting NATO assets.
Several countries, including Finland, Poland and Sweden, have reported GPS glitches in the past few months, e.g. Newsweek. Speaking to Swedish media about it, Sweden’s Lt. Col. Joakim Pasikvi said the intervention was the result of “Russian influence activities or so-called hybrid warfare.”
Russia has experimented with Tobol in an attempt to disrupt Starlink transmissions in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported in April 2023, citing a classified US intelligence report. Ukraine’s access to satellite networks such as Starlink is critical to many of its operations and communications.