GPS interference is a headache

As aircraft systems increasingly rely on GPS as the main navigation system, GPS jammers and jamming devices are increasing exponentially. In the past three years, Spirent Communications, the company that tests navigation equipment, has recorded 150,000 different interference and interference events. “Breaking into the Global Navigation Satellite System [GNSS] is as difficult as getting a credit card. You can go out and easily get some jammer devices. Yes, it is illegal, but if you are using GNSS, you may not care,” thinks Said Jeremy Bennington, head of corporate solutions and technology strategy at Bollen.

He added that the risks to aviation safety are real and real. “Since 2013, the FAA Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing System has recorded more than 100 pilot reports about GPS system obstruction. But we know that this is much more than that, because in the reported case, they gave up Some kind of regulatory requirement; they broke the altitude or went to the wrong place.

Bennington cited several examples of gps jammer in recent years. This includes the Eastern Mediterranean earlier this year, where five ocean-going ships and one aircraft were disrupted for a long time, some with a range of up to 25 miles. Last year, GPS was blocked by Russia in Norway for a week. In the second quarter of 2016, more than 50 reports of GPS jammers on Manila International Airport’s approach to runway 24 resulted in the loss of on-board GNSS, invalid GPS-L and GPS-R messages, and reduced navigation. Performance causes RNP alarms. This also led to the omission of methods,

Bennington said that the “Pokemon Go” augmented reality app launched in 2016 encouraged hackers to cheat GPS to win prizes and upload codes. “Most of the spoofing they do is done on mobile phones, but you can use the same code and software-defined radio and pair it with location and timing data. So you can create a GPS or GNSS spoofing device. He says.

“We have seen a sharp increase in the number of GNSS-related deception incidents, partly due to the rapid development of the technology in Pokémon Go within six weeks, and it has been released to the Internet and those who wish it in an evil way People,” Bennington added. “There are not too many cases where drones have been shot down, but this is because the financial impact and loss of life associated with the dismantling of drones is not as great as the damage. Maritime navigation. But as a rogue country or hacker Goal, we will see this impact.”