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Multiple concerning reports have come from Iranian airspace over complex navigation failures due to fake GPS signals. The FAA warned civil air operators in Iraq and Azerbaijan about the recent GPS spoofing and the threat to safety.GPS spoofing occurs when someone uses a radio transmitter to send a false GPS signal to a receiver antenna to counter the real GPS satellite signal, according to McAfee. While most navigation systems use a strong signal, a stronger fake signal will override the legitimate signal. A flight data intelligence website, Ops Group, issued an alert on Monday, tracking numerous instances of GPS spoofing occurring in the Iranian airspace. The alert identified 20 reports of near-identical situations.
"The impact of the nav failures is becoming clearer, with one operator almost entering Iranian airspace without clearance, and another left requiring ATC vectors all the way to their destination in Doha," Ops Group said in a Thursday update.Graphic from Ops Group
Ops Group reported that one instance involved an Embraer Legacy 650 en route from Europe to Dubai. The crew reported losing GPS in the aircraft and on both iPads and the IRS stopped working. The autopilot reportedly began turning left and right and a few minutes later the crew received an error message on the FMS regarding the GPS. During the incident, the crew nearly entered into Iranian airspace without clearance. Another crew in a Bombardier Challenger 604 received a warning near the north of Baghdad, losing everything related to Nav and the IRS suggested they had drifted by 70-90 miles, according to Ops Group. They had a ground speed of zero and the aircraft calculated 250kts of wind. The FMSs reverted to DR and the crew did not know where they were, requiring vectors from Iraq to Doha for an ILS. The crew reported that they did not get the GPS sensors back until they fired up the plane and went to home base two days later.
The FAA released a memo on the situation, advising of potential spoofing activities in Iraq and Azerbaijan.
"The recent opensource reporting regarding spoofing incidents, if confirmed, would pose increased safety of flight risks, due to potential loss of aircraft situational awareness and increased pilot and regional air traffic control (ATC) workload issues, which can lead to potential accidents and/or loss of life," the FAA said. "FAA recommends that U.S. civil air operators transiting ORBB and UBBA monitor regional NOTAMs, put additional emphasis on maintaining continuous communications with appropriate air traffic control authorities while monitoring aircraft equipment performance closely for any discrepancies or anomalies, and to be prepared to operate without GPS navigational systems."
The spoofing is coming from an unknown source, but causing complete system failures in airliners and business jets. Ops Group notes that there Is a difference between GPS jamming and GPS spoofing, stating that the spoofing attacks have an immediate impact on on-board navigation and most of the crews reporting having received the faux signals have been unable to override or de-select the input and have had to resort to radar vectoring from ATC. While jamming will interrupt the signal and render it unusable, spoofing will produce false positioning without warning, as some systems will not detect it. There are previous NOTAMs issued for the GPS jamming that has occurred in the area since 2018, but do not cover the extensive problems spoofing can cause.Spoofing graph from Dyami Security Intelligence Services
The Washington Times reported that these spoofing incidents are the first time false GPS signals have been detected penetrating aircraft systems. The spoofing attacks have occurred around Erbil in Iraq, northern Iran, eastern Turkey and near Baku in Azerbaijan. Ops Group gave some background information, stating that Iran has recently deployed additional military forces to the northwest border with the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and its northwest borders with Armenia and Azerbaijan. Forces were sent to the Armenia and Azerbaijan border in response to the Azerbaijani military operations in the region, as tensions rise between the Armenian military and Azerbaijani armed forces. Iraq has deployed forces to the area as well. These countries also are all said to have equipment capable of GPS jamming and spoofing. The U.S. military is also present at numerous bases in northern Iraq and Turkey has many military bases on its side of the Iraq border as well as inside Iraqi territories. An intelligence brief from Dyami Security Intelligence Services reported that in the past, Iran has successfully intercepted a drone by GPS spoofing. The area in which the spoofing has occurred is considered a conflict zone and loss of situational awareness adds to the danger of flying in this airspace.
"GPS spoofing is considered particularly dangerous in the region because the aircraft could have risked being shot down if it strayed into Iranian airspace," The Washington Times said.
Ops Group reported that the northern area of the Iranian border is home to two large missile bases. A passenger aircraft was accidentally shot down in 2020 and there have been warnings in September with threats to shoot down aircraft entering the airspace without clearance.
Dyami Security Intelligence Services reported some indications of GPS spoofing in the intelligence brief including loss of GPS integrity, FMS position error, large increase in EPU, incorrect time displayed and map shifts. The intelligence brief stated that pilots can check for NOTAMs for any reported spoofing, perform full IRS alignment if entering an area with known spoofing risks, consider de-selecting GPS sensor input if the option is available and inform ATC when navigational accuracy is degraded or spoofing is suspected.
In 2020, GPS World reported that the U.S. government received an inquiry from a user in Iran in March, reporting circle spoofing, which had previously only been observed in China.
"Iran was the first nation to publicly announce it had the ability to spoof GPS signals and seems to have used it to great advantage," GPS World said.GPS Spoofing graphic from Safran
GPS World also reported that in 2011 a CIA drone was captured and Iran's government claimed this was done by sending false GPS signals. While at the time this was thought not to be possible, testing was done which proved a drone could be intercepted by spoofing. Additionally, in 2016 Iranian forces captured U.S. Navy boats that had strayed into Iran's territorial waters and the speculations were that this was due to GPS spoofing. In February 2022 Middle East Eye reported that Israel blamed a Russian air base in Syria for GPS spoofing and signal jamming planes landing at the Tel Aviv airport.
GPS spoofing can be a serious threat to the airspace. Pilots can lose situational awareness, which can lead to potential accidents and/or loss of life. Another threat is for aircraft unknowingly entering airspace in a conflict zone, potentially putting the plane at risk of being shot down. There is no indication as to what group, country or individual is sending out the false signals. The FAA recommends maintaining continuous communications with controllers and closely monitoring equipment for any discrepancies, preparing to operate the aircraft without a GPS should false signals cause any problems.