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tech / rec.aviation.piloting / GPS Jamming Tests Frustrate Pilots, Controllers

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o GPS Jamming Tests Frustrate Pilots, ControllersLarry Dighera

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GPS Jamming Tests Frustrate Pilots, Controllers

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From: LDigh...@att.net (Larry Dighera)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.piloting
Subject: GPS Jamming Tests Frustrate Pilots, Controllers
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2021 08:08:57 -0700
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 by: Larry Dighera - Tue, 12 Oct 2021 15:08 UTC

Hey Jim,

Here's a little more information to broaden your knowledge of GPS signal
security.

Larry

PS: Have a look at the bottom of the page here old man:
http://kj6yvt.com/computer_automation.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
“The problem is that the GPS signal is very weak. It’s like a car headlight
20,000 kilometres away,” says consultant David Last, former president of the
UK’s Royal Institute of Navigation. You can’t boost the signal any further
because of the limited power supply on a satellite.
<https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20202-gps-chaos-how-a-30-box-can-jam-your-life/>

==============

Building a basic electronic warfare setup to disrupt these weak signals is
trivially easy <https://hackaday.com/tag/gps-jammer/>, says Humphreys:
“Detune the oscillator in a microwave oven and you've got a superpowerful
jammer that works over many kilometers." Illegal GPS jamming devices
<https://www.gps.gov/spectrum/jamming/> are widely available on the black
market, some of them marketed to professional drivers who may want to avoid
being tracked while working.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/faa-files-reveal-a-surprising-threat-to-airline-safety-the-us-militarys-gps-tests

------------------------------------------------
GPS Jamming Tests Frustrate Pilots, Controllers
Russ Niles - October 10, 2021
https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/gps-jamming-tests-frustrate-pilots-controllers/
Just as civil aviation has become thoroughly addicted to GPS, the military
is trying to wean itself off that dependence and that’s causing some
fractious conflicts in the Southwest. The military uses the wide-open spaces
to purposely jam GPS signals to see how its equipment and personnel cope
with the “GPS denial.” But according to IEEE Spectrum
<https://spectrum.ieee.org/gps-jamming>, the military and the FAA are not
always on the same frequency when it comes to managing those tests and
controllers and pilots have put their frustrations in writing in NASA’s
Aviation Safety Reporting System. “Aircraft are greatly affected by the GPS
jamming and it’s not taken seriously by management,” says one report gleaned
by IEEE Spectrum. “We’ve been told we can’t ask to stop jamming, and to just
put everyone on headings.”

The military does notify the FAA about jamming activity but that doesn’t
always seem to get to the frontline workers in the system and the loss of
GPS can be dangerous. One of the reports involved a business jet that made a
wrong turn and ended up in the highly restricted airspace of the White Sands
Missile Range, which, ironically, is the source of much of the jamming.
Another pilot reported he lost his terrain mapping at a critical time and
worried he’d end up in a smoking hole. When the jamming starts jamming up
the system, controllers have the option to request a “stop buzzer” to get
the military to turn off the electronic interference but some controllers
complain they’ve been told not to make those requests and to just issue
vectors to affected traffic. The FAA told IEEE Spectrum that controllers
can, indeed, stop the tests if they think it’s necessary but those requests
are automatically reviewed by upper management.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://spectrum.ieee.org/gps-jamming
FAA Fumbled Its Response To a Surge in GPS Jamming Confusion over stopping
military tests had flight controllers fuming
MARK HARRIS07 OCT 20213

Air traffic controllers in a control tower monitoring the airfield.
ETHAMPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES

FAA MILITARY GPS JAMMING NAVIGATION AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SAFETY AEROSPACE
FAA air traffic controllers supervising flights over Arizona, New Mexico and
Texas were confused and frustrated by an increase in military tests that
interfered with GPS signals for civilian aircraft, public records show.

In March and April this year, flight controllers at the Albuquerque Air
Route Traffic Control Center filed reports on NASA's Aviation Safety
Reporting System (ASRS), a forum where aviation professionals can
anonymously share near misses and safety tips.

The complaints accused the FAA of denying controllers permission to ask the
military to cut short GPS tests adversely affecting commercial and private
aircraft. These so-called "stop buzzer" (or "cease buzzer") requests are
supposed to be made by pilots only when a safety-of-flight issue is
encountered.

"Aircraft are greatly affected by the GPS jamming and it's not taken
seriously by management," reads one report. "We've been told we can't ask to
stop jamming, and to just put everyone on headings."

In a second report, a private jet made a wrong turn into restricted airspace
over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico after being jammed. On that
occasion, the air traffic controller called a stop buzzer. "[The] facility
manager on duty later informed me we can't ask them to 'stop buzzer' and to
just keep putting aircraft on headings," their ASRS report reads.

Putting an aircraft on headings requires giving pilots precise bearings to
follow, rather than letting them perform their own navigation using GPS or
other technologies. This adds work for controllers, who are already very
busy at certain times of day.

"Busy traffic, bad rides, frequency congestion, then GPS jamming," reads one
report. "Limit the length and what time of the day that facilities can GPS
jam and have it taken seriously when we call and ask them to stop."

"Give controllers the ability to have White Sands stop GPS jamming during
high traffic periods," agrees the other.

The Pentagon uses its more remote military bases, many in the American West,
to test how its forces operate under GPS denial. A Spectrum investigation
earlier this year discovered that such jamming tests are far more prevalent
than had previously been thought, possibly affecting thousands of civilian
flights each year.

The FAA does not share how many stop buzzer requests are made, but
Spectrum's investigation obtained FAA data detailing four stop buzzers over
the skies of California during a nine-week period in 2017. These included
passenger jet flights operated by Frontier and Southwest.

The White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), whose tests appear to have caused the
GPS jamming in both recent complaints, estimates it receives "in the low
single digits" of stop buzzer requests a year.

A spokesperson for WSMR told Spectrum: "The US Army takes the safety of its
operations extremely seriously. Calls for a cease buzzer are taken seriously
and range control has not denied or ignored any cease buzzers. WSMR has also
never requested or required any internal organization or outside agency to
not make use of the cease buzzer in the event of an emergency, or unsafe
event."

The FAA provided the following statement:

"The FAA cooperates with Department of Defense to mitigate the effects of
the military's planned interference activities… to levels of acceptable
risk. The primary mitigation when GPS is lost is for a pilot to use another
means of navigation. Air Traffic Control (ATC) will assist the pilot with
navigation on rare occasions, upon request. Should multiple pilots encounter
problems, then ATC has the option to stop the underlying cause through [a]
stop buzzer."

When a stop buzzer call is made by a controller, the FAA then has a review
process to analyze the appropriateness of the action and the associated
operational risk.

However, an FAA source also admitted that one ATC facility "expressed some
confusion as to the scope of their authority to suspend operations using
stop-buzzer protocols when GPS testing had ramped up significantly." The FAA
now believes it has cleared up and abated those field concerns.

Although flight controllers may no longer be instructed not to issue stop
buzzer calls when planes are in trouble, pilots continue to experience
difficulties in the airspace around White Sands.

In May, the pilot of a light aircraft taking off at night in the Albuquerque
area suddenly lost their GPS navigation and terrain warnings. Air traffic
control told the pilot that WSMR was jamming, and instructed them to use
other instruments. That pilot was ultimately able to land safely, but later
submitted their own ASRS report: "Being unfamiliar with this area and
possibly a different avionics configuration I feel my flight could have
possibly ended as controlled flight into terrain."

Such an outcome–a likely deadly crash–would surely not meet anyone's
definition of "acceptable risk."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES
FAA Files Reveal a Surprising Threat to Airline Safety: the U.S. ... ›
Will GPS Jamming Cause Future Shipping Accidents? - IEEE ... ›
RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB
GPS chaos: How a $30 box can jam your life | New Scientist ›
Information About GPS Jamming - GPS.gov ›

Mark Harris
is an investigative science and technology reporter based in Seattle, with a
particular interest in robotics, transportation, green technologies, and
medical devices.

Robert Munsey8 OCT, 2021
Just look at the National Defense Strategy and statement by Space Command
"..Both China and Russia have weaponized space with the intent to hold
American space capabilities at risk. China's communist government has
exercised and continues to develop the capability to jam, targeting SATCOM,
ISR and GPS."
https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/1809882/remarks-by-acting-secretary-shanahan-at-the-35th-space-symposium-colorado-sprin/
The point is that anyone should expect the military to request GPS jamming
to allow units to train in a GPS denied environment. Readers should also
know that such requests HAVE to go through the particular service Spectrum
Management Office (after the unit's SMO), then to the FCC and FAA for
approval. Such DOD requests are not always guarantee and quite frequently
disapproved. With exceptions, most GPS jamming occurs during nocturnal hours
when most civil aircraft are no flying. Also once approval is granted NOTAMs
still have to be published. SO if civil aircraft flies over restricted
airspace in the published NOTAM, then there is a larger problem.
---------------------------------------------------


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