China Using Full Spectrum of Nav Warfare

by | Mar 25, 2023 | Blog

Image: Shutterstock

What’s New: China understands the criticality of navigation warfare to every element of national power. And they are using it.

Why it’s Important:  U.S. influence and power around the world are fading compared to China. Sadly. U.S. officials:

  • Have let GPS slip behind China’s Bei Dou and Europe’s Galileo, despite being able to easily narrow the gap, perhaps even regain leadership,
  • Seem to not be thinking about PNT and GPS much at all (the invisible utility)
  • Are not acting to counter China’s use of Bei Dou as a tool of influence and “soft power”

Examples:

Soft power (repost)

China’s BeiDou: New Dimensions of Great Power Competition

Sarah Sewall
Tyler Vandenberg
Kaj Malden

READ OUR POST AND LINK TO THE HARVARD PAPER

Harder Power

GPS Jamming of Qantas Jets Spotlights Long-standing Issues

GPS/GNSS signal interference has become a creeping normality faced by the global aviation industry, further complicated by military activity and buildup. Some of the reported cases of late have involved Qantas Group, which issued a flight standing order to address interference on VHF channel 121.5 “from stations purporting to represent the Chinese military” during flights over the western Pacific Ocean and South China Sea. Qantas added group aircraft had also experienced GPS jamming suspected to originate from warships operating off the northwest shelf of Australia.

READ MORE

HARD POWER

Blog Editor’s Note – The below is clearly cheap Chinese propaganda. Makes the point nevertheless.

What happened to the GPS around the South China Sea?The U.S. aircraft carrier suddenly lost its way, and the Pentagon sent an emergency investigation

2023-03-23 23:15 HKT
The U.S. Navy often likes to send warships to wander in front of other countries’ homes, or even directly break into the territorial waters of other countries. It is called free navigation. However, the U.S. aircraft carrier has suddenly lost its way recently. It turns out that the GPS navigation mark cannot be found. Then the GPS on the periphery of the South China Sea What’s the matter? The Pentagon sent personnel to conduct an urgent investigation, and finally found that the navigation aids deployed by the United States near the South China Sea had been replaced by China’s Beidou navigation aids. It is no wonder that the U.S. aircraft carriers would get lost because they could not receive the signal.
++++++
OK, maybe China hasn’t used the entire spectrum of nav warfare. At least they haven’t shot down any US satellites.
But they are exercising a lot of navwar, probably as much as is possible without sparking a shooting war. And they have certainly demonstrated they are capable of using every navwar tool.