GPS Jamming: The ongoing war between America, Israel and Iran is not being fought only with missiles and bombs. Along with physical warfare, electronic warfare is also going on from both sides. The latest case is of GPS Jamming, due to which sea and airplanes are facing challenges in navigation. Due to GPS jamming, ships are visible near airports, land and nuclear power plants. Actually, GPS signal is being used as a weapon in this war. In a recent report, it was shown that after reading the GPS signals of ships, it was found that they are circling in circles at the same place. Similarly, airplanes are also seen wandering at the same place. How is all this happening in the end? What is GPS Jamming and how is it different from GPS Spoofing? In today's Tech Explainer, we have brought answers to these questions.
What is GPS Jamming?
When GPS signals are intentionally tampered with to derail navigation and tracking, it is called GPS jamming. This makes it difficult for sea and airplanes to navigate. Due to different signals, a situation of confusion arises for them. GPS jamming is used to stop movement, protect sensitive operations and disrupt military as well as civil navigation systems.
How does GPS Jamming happen?
Both ships and aircraft depend on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) for position, navigation and timing. America's Global Positioning System (GPS) is the most popular GNSS. In this system, along with the ground infrastructure, satellites also work, which continuously send signals to the ground. Receivers are installed in ships and aircraft to receive signals. Due to distance, satellite signals are weak and can be tampered with. With the help of jammer, signals with higher power are weakened and sent to the receiver.
What is GPS spoofing and how is it different from jamming?
GPS jamming and spoofing are both ways of tampering with signals, but spoofing is more dangerous. In jamming, where the signal is tampered with the help of jammer. Due to this, the ship or aircraft is not able to reach the exact location, which makes navigation and tracking difficult. Whereas in spoofing, aircraft and ships are given wrong information about their location by copying GPS signals. This may make them feel as if they are at some other location. In jamming, the signal gets weakened and disappears, whereas in spoofing, mislead is done by giving wrong information.
Jamming incidents increased after Iran war
According to maritime company Windward, incidents of tampering with GPS signals have increased since the start of the Iran war and have seen a manifold increase. This company has seen more than 30 jamming clusters on land and water in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Oman and Iran. Satellite images show that they are throwing the ship's signals to different locations, due to which ships can be seen moving in a circle and aircraft flying in a zig-zag pattern. However, it is not yet known who is tampering with the signal, but in many reports Iran is being held responsible for this. Iran had also threatened that it would target ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
What are the dangers of signal tampering?
If wrong location data is shown to a ship or aircraft, there is a risk of them losing their way. Ships can collide with each other. Also, fake emergency alerts may increase on the world's busiest roads.
Is this happening for the first time?
This is not the first case of disturbing the GPS signal. Such incidents have happened before in war zones to confuse the navigation systems of missiles and drones etc. Drones were used on a large scale for the first time in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Here too GPS signals were used as a weapon. Even before the Iran war, cases of GPS signal tampering were reported in the conflict with Israel.
Has any such incident happened in India also?
India is also not untouched by the incidents of GPS spoofing. In November last year, about 800 flights flying from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport were affected. Cyber spoofing was considered responsible for this. Apart from this, between November 2023 and February 2025, 465 cases of tampering of GPS signals were reported in the border areas including Amritsar and Jammu.
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