Image: Tanker Adalynn on fire after collision with tanker Front Eagle due to GPS spoofing – screen shot from social media
What’s new: A report that governments are starting to question the safety of maritime operations during GPS interference and what measures operators are taking.
Why it’s important:
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GPS/GNSS service is not reliable in many parts of the world. Only some regions have wide-area alternative systems maritime can use without charge.
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Where satnav system service is generally reliable, the signals remain vulnerable to easily accomplished jamming and spoofing.
What else to know:
- Maritime collisions, fires, groundings, oil spills, and ship seizures due to unintentionally entering Iranian waters have all been the result of GPS jamming and spoofing.
- While all GNSS can, and often are, jammed and spoofed, GPS is the only system authorized for AIS and international commercial maritime operations by the IMO.
- Iridium A-PNT offers a service for a fee that gives users greater resilient to jamming and spoofing. It can also provide location information, though we understand position updates are not sufficient for navigation.
Governments start asking shipping the uncomfortable questions on GNSS spoofing
The maritime industry is moving towards a new phase of GNSS resilience, with public authorities beginning to examine whether ship operators can actually navigate safely when satellite positioning becomes unreliable.
For years, warnings about satellite-navigation interference have focused on the growing number of ships encountering jamming and spoofing around conflict zones and politically sensitive waters.
Now the questions being put to ship operators are becoming far more pointed. SplashTech has just received one questionnaire sent out by a government, though to be the UK.
