Image: Interference around Dallas Airport 18 October 2022 (GPSJam.org)
What’s New: An opinion piece reminding us of the need to be able to detect a problem before we can solve it.
Why It’s Important:
- Interference with GPS signals can cost lives. It can also facilitate crimes and terrorism, and degrade systems.
- Authorities in the U.S. have few ways to detect and respond to disruptions.
- The problems at the Dallas and Denver airports in 2022 both lasted more than a day. One was a government source that was finally turned off. The other turned itself off and is still a mystery.
What Else to Know:
- Whatever system is established will have to be accurate enough for enforcement to pinpoint and terminate the source of a disruption.
- Using cell phones is a good idea for part of the solution, as Sean suggests. There are privacy concerns, though, so individual users would likely have to opt-in. But even if it were just phones issued to government employees, this might make a good start.
- Using cell base stations as part of the solution could help also. This has been proposed to the advisory board by several companies.
- Someone is going to have to champion this within the government and cough up some money. Without a real and empowered leader for PNT issues in the U.S. government, establishing an interference detection capability will be a challenge.
The urgent need for a national GPS jamming detection system
GPS threats are increasing at a record rate.
Escalating conflicts around the world are undermining GPS reliability as a surge of interference attacks continues to impact vast areas of Europe and the Middle East, causing significant disruptions for civilians. At the same time, more criminals increasingly use jammers for drug trafficking, cargo truck thefts and other criminal operations in North America. Sporadic GPS jamming and spoofing incidents have disrupted key American airports in recent years. Even everyday American citizens are now purchasing low-cost retail jammers as privacy fears and anti-government conspiracy theories spread.
Security analysts have spent years warning about the potential for targeted attacks on GPS that could disrupt the financial system, power grid, air traffic systems and emergency services. However, while there are growing calls to develop backup capabilities for GPS, there is another critical issue that must also be addressed.
America urgently needs an automated national detection system that can pinpoint GPS interference the moment it occurs and provide accurate real-time maps of where the impact is actually occurring.
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