Space Sovereignty — incident
GPS jamming over Georgia
During the brief Russia-Georgia war, Russian forces jam GPS and satellite communications across South Ossetia. Civilian aviation in the region routes around the interference. Tbilisi takes the lesson to heart.
During the brief Russia-Georgia war of August 2008, Russian forces operate ground-based jammers that degrade GPS reception across South Ossetia and adjacent Georgian territory. Civilian aviation in the region routes around the interference; military observers from NATO take detailed notes.
The episode marks the first widely-reported wartime use of GNSS jamming as a deliberate denial-of-positioning operation against a sovereign neighbour. Within a decade, similar techniques will be in routine use across the Black Sea, the Baltic and the eastern Mediterranean.