NATO plans to buy jammers that black out GPS for 11 km

NATO plans to buy six portable kits that can jam satellite navigation signals and the radio links drones use for control and video, so its trainers can expose ships, aircrews and drone operators to realistic interference during exercises. Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, the alliance command in Norfolk, Virginia, that leads NATO’s training and modernization work, intends to issue a request for proposals on Oct. 26, 2026, according to a notice posted by the U.S. Commerce Department. Bids are due on Nov. 30, and NATO expects to award a fixed-price contract on Dec. 11, using a sealed bidding procedure under its common funding rules. The kits could also be used in operations. NATO said modern forces depend on satellite navigation for positioning and timing in everything from ships and aircraft to drones and precision-guided weapons, and that jamming or spoofing those signals can leave vehicles without a reliable position or time reference. Small and medium drones are especially vulnerable, since interfering with their navigation or control signals can push them off course, force them to hover, land or fly home, or cut the operator’s video feed. The alliance said its training and evaluation teams need equipment that can create controlled interference on demand, so they can see how crews detect, report and adapt to it. Each kit must be light enough for one or two people to carry and ready to use within 30 minutes, and must work from a ship, rigid inflatable boat, uncrewed surface vessel, vehicle, tripod or fixed ground site. It must be able to jam the signals of all four major satellite navigation systems, America’s GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, Europe’s Galileo and China’s BeiDou, across multiple frequency bands at once, with each band selectable on its own. The kits also need to jam drone video links in the 5 to 6 GHz band and drone control links at 400 to 500 MHz and 2 to 3 GHz, as well as several cellular and other bands. Operators must be able to set the area where satellite navigation is denied anywhere from 500 m to 11 km (6 nautical miles), in steps of no more than 500 m, and vendors must provide tables predicting how far the effect will reach at altitudes up to 10,000 ft (about 3,050 m), so exercise planners can keep it away from civilian air traffic. NATO wants the system run from a laptop with a user interface simple enough for non-specialists, with both omnidirectional and directional antennas and at least four hours of operation on battery power. It must also be controllable remotely anywhere in the world over encrypted satellite links, with a local override and a remote shutdown, and it must include a time-limited mode that cuts off emissions automatically and logs every transmission with a time source that does not depend on satellite navigation. The winning vendor will deliver the six kits along with a demonstration plan, on-site training at a NATO unit in Europe or the United Kingdom, a user guide with a safety and deconfliction annex, and an emission test report for each kit to support approval from national and NATO spectrum authorities. Satellite navigation jamming has become a regular problem for NATO members, particularly around the Baltic Sea, where airlines and shipping have reported widespread GPS interference that several European governments have blamed on Russia. In 2025, an aircraft carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen lost GPS signals while approaching an airport in Bulgaria, an incident Bulgarian authorities attributed to suspected Russian interference. U.S. companies that want to bid must have an active facility in the United States, be approved for NATO competitive procurement, and receive a declaration of eligibility from the U.S. government. The Commerce Department set a deadline of Oct. 23 for U.S. firms to request that declaration and, if they are new to NATO bidding, to submit a one-time application.