IATA Reports 500% Spike In GPS Spoofing Last Year

HELLFIRE

https://simpleflying.com/iata-500-spike-gps-spoofing-last-year/
https://www.iata.org/en/publications/safety-report/executive-summary/ -- report available here in full

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has issued its 2024 safety report, highlighting that the number of incidents increased year-over-year (YoY), yet pleaded not to draw incorrect statistical conclusions from individual events. According to IATA, in 2024, the aviation industry successfully transported 5 billion passengers on over 40 million flights. While the long-term trend showed that the industry has significantly reduced the number of accidents, with 1.13 accidents per million sectors in 2024 compared to 3.72 per million sectors in 2005, the number of accidents in 2024 increased YoY.

“Although the number of accidents increased in 2024, it is important not to draw incorrect statistical conclusions from individual events, as aviation remains one of the safest modes of transport.”

... One of the noteworthy points that IATA made in its release was that Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-related interference increased sharply in 2024 compared to 2023.

“While there are several back-up systems in place to support aviation safety even when these systems are affected, these incidents still pose deliberate and unacceptable risks to civil aviation. GNSS interference is most prevalent in Türkiye, Iraq, and Egypt.”

FWIW. Sharing out of interest on the matter.

Regards

real_aurgathor

HELLFIRE Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-related interference increased sharply in 2024 compared to 2023.

The article notes GNSS, but I still wonder if that is refers to GLONASS or Global Navigation Satellite Systems in general.

In any case, it should not be too difficult to make a reasonably spoof resistant navigation computer that:

monitors all four global systems
uses other sensors (i.e. air speed, compass, etc.) to verify and ascertain readings
listens to various terrestrial stations (when available) and use that to determine the craft's approximate position
listens to other, non GNSS related satellites to determine the craft's approximate position

HELLFIRE

Out of mild curiousity on the matter, I found this -- https://www.global-imi.com/blog/top-8-alternatives-gps -- Top 8 Alternatives for GPS

Silicon photonics
Atomic clock
Enhanced Long-Range Navigation (eLORAN)
Quantum navigation
Inertial Navigation Systems (INS)
Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)
Visual Positioning System (VPS)
Satellite alternatives

...in the Dumb Question(TM) pile, does pilot training still include dead reckoning and stellar navigation?

Regards

Blackbird

HELLFIRE does pilot training still include dead reckoning and stellar navigation?

Celestial nav requires clear viewing access directly overhead to at least 3 good stars (windows for which airliners lack), given the max altitudes commercial aircraft usually fly. Horizon haze (especially in daylight) impairs visibility of lower-elevation stars. There have been military craft that made quite effective and accurate automatic use of celestial navigation, but they were also equipped with atomic clocks and computers which certainly aid the process. A good inertial nav system is a possible alternative, though costly and needing fairly frequent re-calibration for high accuracy.

GeekGirl1

HELLFIRE Atomic clock

I have no idea how that could possibly work. The inherent latency in a mobile network is simply too unpredictable to get an accurate fix. They claim that it can mitigate multipath, but I'm betting that it will take too long average out the errors.

Let's see what accuracy they get outside a lab environment.

Somewhat-Reticent

HELLFIRE dead reckoning

Deductive ( "ded", not dead ) reckoning is for open/empty spaces, not high-traffic zones.
Inherent error accumulates.

Bink63

HELLFIRE does pilot training still include dead reckoning

Oddly enough, I can pilot an aircraft for hours with nothing more than a compass, altimeter, airspeed indicator, turn and bank indicator, a current local chart and the hours I've spent learning and practicing exactly that. (I'm sticking with the instruments installed in the aircraft for the hardware. Circular slide rule, prefight briefings and sundry are also part of piloting, but don't form the basis for keeping the shiny side up and the greasy side down)

Splitpair

real_aurgathor listens to other, non GNSS related satellites to determine the craft's approximate position

Approximate position doesn't cut it when flying.

HELLFIRE

Splitpair Approximate position doesn't cut it when flying.

I remember coming across this story while back, bad enough you [bleep] up navigating a civilian plane, what's it rank as if you [bleep] up navigating a plane dropping things that go "BOOM!" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-bdJF6TUFs

Bottom line, the importance of "Where is here? Where am I?" definitely cannot be understated...

Regards

real_aurgathor

Splitpair Approximate position doesn't cut it when flying.

Looks like your understanding seems to be somewhat (?!) lacking -- may want to read all the points in order; plus I have a feeling you're not familiar with the possible accuracies of various systems.

First, GPS can be accurate for a few centimeters (!!) while some of the alternatives such as eLoran can be accurate for a few meters -- while that few meters of accuracy that may be insufficient for an instrumental landing in bad weather (no visuals), it should be more than enough for flying, And for landing, there are other systems such as ILS, and more often than not, there are visuals.

In any case, data gathered from less precise, but harder, or exceedingly difficult to spoof measurements would primarily be used to validate GPS derived data and detect spoofing.

HELLFIRE

Thanks for that @Blackbird , it was a partially rhetorical question on my part, but partially from a "worst case scenario" you lost GPS / GLONASS / etc, your instruments are out, it's pitch black outside, "so now what" kind of thing? Other than "don't panic."

Regards

Thane_Bitter

real_aurgathor Is eLoran even an alternative? It has to exist and be operation, along with people having compatible equipment to be of use. I agree with the logic, using the russian GPS system to back up the American one is a bit too much like putting your eggs in Ivan's basket. IMHO you need three inputs to get some sort of a reliable consensus of information, more is better but one or two are not enough.

GeekGirl1

Bink63 Oddly enough, I can pilot an aircraft for hours with nothing more than a compass, altimeter, airspeed indicator, turn and bank indicator, a current local chart and the hours I've spent learning and practicing exactly that.

That's the way I learned many years ago. Instrumentation has backup. If the electronics fail, others will provide "the basics".

Somewhat-Reticent

Bink63 keeping the shiny side up and the greasy side down

Of a truck ( CB slang ) ? 😀

Somewhat-Reticent

Thane_Bitter Is there ever consensus betwixt .us, .ru, .cn, and .space instances ??
( And what about .aliens !? ) 🙄

real_aurgathor

Thane_Bitter

I don't think there is any functional eLoran system yet, but commercial radio stations can also be used to triangulate with lesser accuracy. If I remember right, at least in some of the documented cases on the Black sea, according to the GPS, ships were several hundred kilometers inland, and that's way bigger that the accuracy of triangulation.

When you have multiple inputs, a purpose built navigation system can easily figure out if some GPS signal is spoofed, and do it without any interaction from the pilot. It would use whatever is available in a given area. Obviously, over the oceans there wouldn't be any terrestrial station, only satellites, compass, altimeter, etc. Over, or close to land there would be radio stations.

Thane_Bitter

Somewhat-Reticent Well that would be an interesting discussion on the ever and rapid changing face of geo-politics but one that can't be had here.
The russian GPS is comparable in terms of accuracy to that of the US when distortion and other interference isn't going on, the question is what other options are there? Sure you could pull out a watch and sextant, do the necessary calculations and get a sense on your location but it's not that accurate, even if automated removing the human factors that sort of positioning is limited, it might be good enough for some things such as ships in the ocean but not so useful for planes, and on land navigation.

Blackbird

Thane_Bitter Sure you could pull out a watch and sextant, do the necessary calculations and get a sense on your location but it's not that accurate, even if automated removing the human factors that sort of positioning is limited

It's really only limited by the cost and complexity of the timekeeper, automation and star-sensor suite. Certain spy planes used atomic clocks, automatic star finders, and computers to determine their locations with freaky accuracy... sometimes at extremely high speeds. 😉

Thane_Bitter

Blackbird Sure, built before GPS existed, and pretty costly to make in their heyday. With mems tech and other advances they can be made cheaper but again does boeing or airbus sell a plane that has an internal nav system certified with a certain accuracy?

Bink63

real_aurgathor commercial radio stations can also be used to triangulate with lesser accuracy.

In flight, can be low-tech. With an ADF (Automatic Direction Finder) and knowing the frequencies and locations for nearby NDBs (Non Directional Beacons), you can do a fair job of navigating...

https://vacationtripreviews.com/2018/01/23/radio-stations-adf/

AM Radio Stations For Your ADF
January 23, 2018 No Comments
AM Radio Stations
Have you ever road tripped across the country and wondered how to find the strong AM signals? I put a list of the strongest stations in the eastern two-thirds of the nation down below. But there is another way to use these towers too.

ADF Hunting For Your Cessna
I want to introduce you to a little thing we called ADF hunting. One type of navigational aid used in aviation is a non-directional beacon (NDB.) Pilots can tune an NDB station with an automatic direction finder (ADF). When an ADF is tuned to a station, a needle will point toward the NDB antenna. It’s a crude, and not-often-used system but it still functions today.

One interesting thing about NDB’s is they are within the same frequency range as AM radio. AM stations use every tenth channel while the 9 in the middle are set aside for NDB use. An ADF is capable of tuning AM radio and usually can be selected to a voice mode to listen to the station. This is, of course, one additional way of increasing situational awareness by knowing where large nearby towns are because as you tune an AM station, the ADF needle will also point to the tower it is broadcast from.

Radio transmissions are measured in Watts. The highest AM frequency wattage licensed to stations is 50,000 watts. The following list contains these stations by location and frequency.

FAA Sectional Charts also denote the NDB locations as icons on the chart.

Thane_Bitter

real_aurgathor The moon also works but the method (literally called the Lunar Method) requires observations, comulation and consulting with published almach. Computers can deal with the latter two, and electromechanical devices can cover the issue of observations but so far no one has bothered to build such a machine. Much of the world is entirely depending on GPS (spefifically the US variant alone), that is a lot of eggs, in one basket.

real_aurgathor

Bink63

Bink63 The highest AM frequency wattage licensed to stations is 50,000 watts.

I'm not sure if you mean NDB for that 50,000 watts, but there are some commercial AM radio stations with 2 MW of power.

Somewhat-Reticent

Non-Directional Beacon for short-range?