Secret tech-tricks in Baltic waters put ships in danger - heres what we know

The Baltic Sea faces a two-sided problem: suspicious Chinese ships near sea-floor cables and fake ship-location data (that makes vessels appear in wrong spots)

In late-2023 Yi Peng 3‚ a Chinese bulk-carrier became main focus after cable damage near Baltic waters; Danish Swedish and German vessels keep watch while its anchored between their shores

Ships in Finnish waters create extra issues: they turn off tracking systems and show wrong positions. Pekka Niittyla from Finnish Coast Guard points to growing concerns; while transport minister Lulu Ranne thinks Russia messes with nav-systems

Modern shipping depends on sat-nav tech: ships must use auto-identification systems to show locations. Last year UK found these systems bring $17.2m yearly benefits but now Russia breaks both satellite signals and ships data-sharing

This is something that is coming in the wake of the Ukraine war

Black Sea became testing-ground for location tricks; since about 7 years ago ships reported weird position errors. Research shows nearly 10000 cases of signal problems in different spots; Russian shadow-fleet (carrying oil above price caps) often hides its real position

Danes found GPS problems on ferries caused by truck-mounted jammers. Anders Grenstad‚ ex-Swedish Navy chief says: Russians excel at disrupting nav-systems; they focus on Gulf of Finland to hide whats going in-and-out of their ports

The tricks make real danger for ships: wrong positions could cause crashes and hurt sea life. Line Falkenberg Ollestad from Norwegian Shipowners group explains: turning off tracking is ok only during pirate threats

Ship masters deal with delays cause they must slow down when signals look wrong; many sailors dont know old navigation methods anymore. Experts think other countries might copy these tricks - making international shipping even harder