Dangerous GPS jamming?

[Matt Herron Jr.]

Latest GPS jamming tests ( https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices/2013/Feb/NAFC_13-04_GPS_Flight_Advisory.pdf ) are mostly scheduled at night, but the week of March 11-15th they are smack in the middle of prime soaring time; 1:00-2:30PM PST. They may disrupt GPS functionality over most of California and Nevada and a good chunk of Colorado during that time.

I have personally seen big holes of 20 minutes or more in my flight logs in the past due to these tests. Anything that uses GPS is potentially affected, and increasingly many of these devices are safety oriented.

Potential issues include;

1) ruined flight logs for contests, OLC, badges, or record flights
2) loss of GPS navigation to safe landing sites or getting home
3) loss of PowerFlarm collision warnings (due to GPS, not loss of 915mhz)
4) Loss of ADS-B warnings (can someone confirm this?)
5) loss of PCAS warnings?

What happens to drones flown by local law enforcement or private sector during this time? Does SSA or AOAP lobby against this testing on our behalf?

Anyone else concerned or annoyed by this???

Matt

[Don Johnstone[_4_]]

At 18:20 22 February 2013, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
>Latest GPS jamming tests (
>https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices/2013/Feb=
>/NAFC_13-04_GPS_Flight_Advisory.pdf ) are mostly scheduled at night, but
>th=
>e week of March 11-15th they are smack in the middle of prime soaring
>time;=
> 1:00-2:30PM PST. They may disrupt GPS functionality over most of
>Californ=
>ia and Nevada and a good chunk of Colorado during that time.
>
>I have personally seen big holes of 20 minutes or more in my flight logs
>in=
> the past due to these tests. Anything that uses GPS is potentially
>affect=
>ed, and increasingly many of these devices are safety oriented.
>
> Potential issues include;
>
>1) ruined flight logs for contests, OLC, badges, or record flights
>2) loss of GPS navigation to safe landing sites or getting home
>3) loss of PowerFlarm collision warnings (due to GPS, not loss of 915mhz)
>4) Loss of ADS-B warnings (can someone confirm this?)
>5) loss of PCAS warnings?
>
>What happens to drones flown by local law enforcement or private sector
>dur=
>ing this time? Does SSA or AOAP lobby against this testing on our
behalf?
>
>Anyone else concerned or annoyed by this???

From experience in the UK these tests are very localised and in many cases
are confirned to restricted areas where we cannot fly anyway. Bit of a non
problem really. There are NOTAM'd so everyone is aware.
>
>Matt
>

[Matt Herron Jr.]

Not sure what you mean by localized, as this area covers the better part of three states. The jamming signal emanates from one location so I doubt they can restrict the affected area to just restricted airspace.

What does a CD do if a NOTAM like this pops up on top of his/her contest? Move the launch time to 3pm? require cameras for turn points (kidding, but what's the alternative?) Hope for the best? If it hasn't happened already, it will. If a pilot gets a "hole" in his log and misses a turn point, is he/she just out of luck?

[mike]

On Friday, February 22, 2013 1:42:45 PM UTC-7, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
> Not sure what you mean by localized, as this area covers the better part of three states. The jamming signal emanates from one location so I doubt they can restrict the affected area to just restricted airspace.
>
>
>
> What does a CD do if a NOTAM like this pops up on top of his/her contest? Move the launch time to 3pm? require cameras for turn points (kidding, but what's the alternative?) Hope for the best? If it hasn't happened already, it will. If a pilot gets a "hole" in his log and misses a turn point, is he/she just out of luck?

Contact them and explain the situation.

We would have had jamming conflicts at the Moriarty contests the past two years, but prior to the events we contacted the powers to be and they worked with us, resulting in no conflicts.

Mike

[Steve Koerner]

You can count me as concerned and annoyed. I think enough is enough. I understand that there is a need to characterize jamming scenarios and capabilities. But do the damn tests for 5 minutes at 2AM; not for hours in the middle of the day over a huge geographic area. The FAA is letting us down in this regard.

[Bill T]

Red Flag is in town. The center of the GPS jammer is in the Nellis AFB, Red Flag range.
They are flying afternoon and night missions for 3 weeks.

[Darryl Ramm]

On Friday, February 22, 2013 10:20:19 AM UTC-8, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
> Latest GPS jamming tests ( https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices/2013/Feb/NAFC_13-04_GPS_Flight_Advisory.pdf ) are mostly scheduled at night, but the week of March 11-15th they are smack in the middle of prime soaring time; 1:00-2:30PM PST. They may disrupt GPS functionality over most of California and Nevada and a good chunk of Colorado during that time.
>
>
>
> I have personally seen big holes of 20 minutes or more in my flight logs in the past due to these tests. Anything that uses GPS is potentially affected, and increasingly many of these devices are safety oriented.
>
>
>
> Potential issues include;
>
>
>
> 1) ruined flight logs for contests, OLC, badges, or record flights
>
> 2) loss of GPS navigation to safe landing sites or getting home
>
> 3) loss of PowerFlarm collision warnings (due to GPS, not loss of 915mhz)
>
> 4) Loss of ADS-B warnings (can someone confirm this?)
>
> 5) loss of PCAS warnings?
>
>
>
> What happens to drones flown by local law enforcement or private sector during this time? Does SSA or AOAP lobby against this testing on our behalf?
>
>
>
> Anyone else concerned or annoyed by this???
>
>
>
> Matt

PCAS has nothing to do with GPS and is not affected.
TCAS only uses ADS-B in round about ways and should not affect its resolution advisories/RAs.
ADS-B would be affected if the GPS input to the ADS-B data-out transmitter is affected or the GPS input for the receiver/traffic display system is affected (used to calculate its location relative to the other traffic)
But in effect today hardly anybody in a glider uses ADS-B for collision avoidance. PowerFLARM has 1090ES data-in but few gliders or power aircraft today have ADS-B data-out. Most concentrations probably affecting gliders in this broad area might be PowerFLARM equipped gliders able to 'see' 1090ES data-out equipped airliners in busy areas like near Reno, but even there because of the closing speeds the range/warning offered to the glider pilot is probably not that great. And in locations like Reno with busy airline traffic the more important collision avoidance technology is ATC SSR radar and TCAS (both require transponder equipped gliders) and are not affected by GPS issues. that would change in future as ATC relies more on ADS-B 9and if the FAA ever gets away with closing more terminal radar facilities). Yet more of the silliness with ADS-B, all kind of idiotic. At least in these busy areas TCAS remains as an important collision avoidance technology... and a good reason for having transponders in gliders in those areas.

[kirk.stant]

On Friday, February 22, 2013 7:20:19 PM UTC+1, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:> Anyone else concerned or annoyed by this???

No. GPS is a military system. Working against jammers or in a GPS denied environment is essential military training.

You want to fly when GPS is being jammed? Go somewhere else, or use a map.

Kirk
66
USAF Ret

[kirk.stant]

On Tuesday, February 26, 2013 4:21:17 AM UTC+1, Steve Koerner wrote:
> You can count me as concerned and annoyed. I think enough is enough. I understand that there is a need to characterize jamming scenarios and capabilities. But do the damn tests for 5 minutes at 2AM; not for hours in the middle of the day over a huge geographic area. The FAA is letting us down in this regard.

Steve, I have to disagree with you in this respect. If you want a system that the US military doesn't train with, then get your own - use GLONASS or the Chinese system or whatever the Euros are putting up. But complaining about GPS outages is like moving next to an active airbase then complaining about the noise!

The fact that everyone has piggybacked on GPS and found wonderful ways to use it doesn't change the fact that it is a US military funded, developed, and maintained system. It's a weapon system! We get to play with it for free, and thats great, but our contribution is in our tax money that goes to the military, not in funding GPS via FAA user fees or whatever.

That being said - Contest managers obviously need to keep an eye out for potential GPS outages that could affect a contes and work with the local military to see if there is a way to work around each others needs.

If this comes off as a rant, so be it - but like complaints about military use of MOAs and restricted airspace, it just irritates me how much people will complain about military intrusions on their pastimes while taking our national security for granted.

Cheers!

Kirk
66

[Matt Herron Jr.]

>"The fact that everyone has piggybacked on GPS and found wonderful ways to use it doesn't change the >fact that it is a US military funded, developed, and maintained system. It's a weapon system! We get to >play with it for free, and thats great, but our contribution is in our tax money that goes to the military, >not in funding GPS via FAA user fees or whatever. "


I agree that GPS is a military system. Two military systems really. one Russian and the other American. That being said, GPS has become a critical part of our infrastructure and the military and our government recognize this. There are laws and policies in place to protect the integrity of the system for civilian use;


"U.S. Policy Statement Regarding Civil GPS Availability
March 21, 2003

The United States Government recognizes that GPS plays a key role around the world as part of the global information infrastructure and takes seriously the responsibility to provide the best possible service to civil and commercial users worldwide. This is as true in times of conflict as it is in times of peace.

The U.S. Government also maintains the capability to prevent hostile use of GPS and its augmentations while retaining a military advantage in a theater of operations without disrupting or degrading civilian uses outside the theater of operations.

We believe we can ensure that GPS continues to be available as an invaluable global utility at all time, while at the same time, protecting U.S. and coalition security requirements."

This was pulled from the following site, that has lots of additional info: http://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/modernization/sa/

[kirk.stant]

On Wednesday, February 27, 2013 5:28:34 PM UTC+1, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
> I agree that GPS is a military system. Two military systems really. one Russian and the other American.

Well, no. The GPS system that we all use and love is the US military system. GLONASS is the soviet/russian copy. There is also a Chinese satnav system being installed, and Europe has been developing it's own system (so as to not rely on the US military) for a long time.

You can get receivers that use multiple systems, but don't think any are in use in gliders.

Agree that the US govt has committed itself to the peaceful, civilian use of GPS. But that doens't change the fact that it is a critical military system, and must be treated as such.

Kirk
66

[Steve Koerner]

Well Kirk, I appreciate that you have a military perspective and I understand that it was originally developed for the military. Never the less, it was not funded by the military as you say, it was funded by me and a some other guys like me and it is for all practical purposes now a US government everybody utility and we've all become quite dependent. So please don't jam it, damn it.

Or, if they really really need to jam it for a test, do it at 2 AM. Make the test short and localized -- not like described in the Notam that Matt pointed to.

[Wallace Berry[_2_]]

In article >,
"kirk.stant" > wrote:

> On Friday, February 22, 2013 7:20:19 PM UTC+1, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:> Anyone
> else concerned or annoyed by this???
>
> No. GPS is a military system. Working against jammers or in a GPS denied
> environment is essential military training.
>
> You want to fly when GPS is being jammed? Go somewhere else, or use a map.
>
> Kirk
> 66
> USAF Ret

Military ain't the only ones jamming GPS. Truckers have GPS jammers to
spoof their company GPS nannies. These are supposed to be extremely
short range, but there are reports of them interfering with aircraft
GPS. Hopefully, the military GPS jamming tests include working on ways
of making the GPS system more jam-proof.

Speaking of jamming: The cruise control on a car I had would always
disengage and refuse to work on a stretch of I-85 northbound, just on
the south side of the Atlanta airport. It would start working upon
reaching the north side of the airport.

[CindyB[_2_]]

>
> > else concerned or annoyed by this???
>
>
> Military ain't the only ones jamming GPS. Truckers have GPS jammers to
>
> spoof their company GPS nannies.

As the SSA's Airspace committee person, I have followed GPS jamming and spoofing as a potentially awkward development for US soaring over the past ten years. I repeatedly raised the issue of jamming and spoofing to the IGC GNSS committee, including sending them IGC files with 'holes' from documented announced jamming events, to make them believe that perhaps we would have difficulties with record flights in the western states of the US. (Please note they still downplay our realities.)

The discussions did allow for a slight modification of the Sporting Code to allow verification of 'achieving a turn point' (sector or beyond the line) to be verified if two fixes could be interpolated to show a passage beyond the point. There never was accommodation for gain of height situations, other than to say --' the approved recorders all have pressure transducers'. And subsequent to those talks, there has been separate discussion to accommodate Perlan's activity; which was what got me started in the first place, as I was hosting Fossett and Enevolden launches for altitude record flights.

I doubt there is as much GPS jamming in Argentina as there is in the western US. (Smile.)

I raised awareness of scheduled GPS jammer testing to a 1-26 Nationals, a couple Regionals, and locally have passed along NOTAM postings to a few SoCal/Region 12 high achievers. The contest organizers were pointed to the local military agencies, and the DofDef were very gracious about adjusting test schedules around event soaring. I doubt we would be so well served for weekday OLC flying or one-off record attempts. Now, it is almost de rigeur for the western contest organizers to address their GPS jammers during contest preparations. And, everyday pilots are becoming aware of increasing areas and durations of GPS test events. Hooray for NOTAM awareness!

Yes, GPS came into being on the Dept of Defense budget. It has permeated civilian use and the FAA leans on it heavily, decommissioning ground based radio-nav VORs due to GPS WAAS and other applications. There are documented cases of signal loss on IFR approaches due to ground based civilian (illegal) jamming. Locally, the Dept of Defense has been our best ally in accessing airspace that is protected from airline traffic.... with our Region 12 wave windows and wave XC procedures in Restricted airspace. So the DoD isn't all bad news.

As with all technology and piloting.... you better keep the skills sharp that relate to basic VFR flight. Navigation, airspace restrictions, traffic avoidance, awards flying all require pilots to plan ahead for many eventualities that occur 'in-flight'. Loss of a GPS signal shouldn't endanger a soaring flight.

This message brought to you by the gal who was known as the "Anti-Electron Queen", with a tremulous grasp on the trailing edge of technology.

Cindy Brickner, Region 12 Director

[Matt Herron Jr.]

Cindy,

Nice to hear from you. keep the pressure on limiting the testing. Does the AOAP have any skin in this game? One would think so, and they may have more clout than our motley collection of glider guiders...

Matt

[[email protected]]

Le jeudi 28 février 2013 05:47:27 UTC+1, Steve Koerner a écrit*:
> Well Kirk, I appreciate that you have a military perspective and I understand that it was originally developed for the military. Never the less, it was not funded by the military as you say, it was funded by me and a some other guys like me and it is for all practical purposes now a US government everybody utility and we've all become quite dependent. So please don't jam it, damn it.
>
>
>
> Or, if they really really need to jam it for a test, do it at 2 AM. Make the test short and localized -- not like described in the Notam that Matt pointed to.

I seem to understand this is not a test about the effectivity of GPS jamming. Red Flag is a full blown military exercise, where aircraft (often also from other NATO forces) are flying in simulated war situations. GPS jamming seems to be a fairly obvious way of handicapping your opponents. It makes it necessary for them to revert to inertial navigation systems, to good old map reading, compass and chronometer, or switch to whatever successor to GPS may already exist (it would most likely remain highly classified). It is logical to simulate this aspect also - and the easiest way is of course to effectively jam the GPS signal. But it seems to me it would be just as efficient to disable GPS reception in the participating planes. I don't know if it's feasible though in complex weapon systems...

So it seems you're "just unlucky" to live in an area hosting this type of exercise. Perhaps it's not such a bad idea to have a backup camera, after all, for contests in that area. Even if IGC doesn't recognize this method anymore, I think it could very well be specified in the local rules. You would only need to activate the system in case of scheduled jamming, of course. Not being IGC regulated, you could even use a digital camera or your phone (the pictures are timestamped)...

Well, at least they don't prohibit you flying, as they sometimes do in large areas of some European countries during Nato (or even national) exercises.. "Temporary Prohibited / Restricted Areas" are really frequent in France, for example, the numerous permanent ones notwithstanding.

[Tom K (ES)]

I like that the AF pilots are training with GPS jamming, it kinda makes it hard to drop a JDAM without it. They might have to do some of that "pilot sh*t". :)

[Don Johnstone[_4_]]

I sometimes wonder if some people have a grip on reality. The GPS system as
we know it is a military system, designed to help our forces in times of
conflict. We use it for free and over the years the civilian use has
improved, we no longer have position errors created by the system.
Given it's primary pupose do we really want the pilots who fight using the
system to experience jamming for the first time in real combat? Might it
not be a good idea to train for the eventuality in a realistic fashion? A
small inconvieniece to contests and soaring claims is a small price to pay
to save lives of military pilots and civilians who might collect an
explosive delivery if the first time they see a jammed GPS is in combat.
Stop whining about it, deal with it in an adult fashion for pitys sake.

[Greg Arnold]

On 2/28/2013 6:00 PM, Don Johnstone wrote:
> I sometimes wonder if some people have a grip on reality. The GPS system as
> we know it is a military system, designed to help our forces in times of
> conflict. We use it for free and over the years the civilian use has
> improved, we no longer have position errors created by the system.
> Given it's primary pupose do we really want the pilots who fight using the
> system to experience jamming for the first time in real combat? Might it
> not be a good idea to train for the eventuality in a realistic fashion? A
> small inconvieniece to contests and soaring claims is a small price to pay
> to save lives of military pilots and civilians who might collect an
> explosive delivery if the first time they see a jammed GPS is in combat.
> Stop whining about it, deal with it in an adult fashion for pitys sake.
>

Couldn't the military pilot accomplish the same thing just by turning
off the GPS on his plane?

[Bill T]

No.
He needs to be able to recognize when the system is being jammed and how to work around it.
The fail safe for the pilot navigation system is that the GPS feed into the INS exceeds the kalman filter limits and is disregarded. However, there are weapons that rely on GPS for terminal guidance. the pilot has to learn and adapt by making realtime in the air decisions and act.

I agree that as the FAA moves toward relying more and more on ADS-B, which requires WAAS data quality, the GPS recievers have to be more secure to reject any jamming inputs. Jamming can introduce false data into the GPS navigator, or totally block the signal.

BT

[[email protected]]

On Thursday, February 28, 2013 6:00:24 PM UTC-8, Don Johnstone wrote:
> We use it for free and over the years the civilian use has
> improved, we no longer have position errors created by the system.

Uh, no, we do not use it for free, WE PAID FOR IT. I also seem to remember that, back in the 90s, there was an agreement that the Departments of Transportation and Commerce were to pay for specific upgrades to future blocks of satellites (now in orbit) out of their budgets, adding more civillian frequencies and localized satellite-based denial capability, in exchange the Department of Defense was going to limit the geographic scope and duration of this sort of testing within the boundaries of the US. We have now implemented such things as GPS precision approaches, ADS-B, GPS-aided positive train control systems, GPS-timed safety critical valve controls on gas pipelines, etc. Something is wrong with this picture...

[mike]

On Thursday, February 28, 2013 7:33:33 PM UTC-7, Greg Arnold wrote:
> On 2/28/2013 6:00 PM, Don Johnstone wrote:
>
> > I sometimes wonder if some people have a grip on reality. The GPS system as
>
> > we know it is a military system, designed to help our forces in times of
>
> > conflict. We use it for free and over the years the civilian use has
>
> > improved, we no longer have position errors created by the system.
>
> > Given it's primary pupose do we really want the pilots who fight using the
>
> > system to experience jamming for the first time in real combat? Might it
>
> > not be a good idea to train for the eventuality in a realistic fashion? A
>
> > small inconvieniece to contests and soaring claims is a small price to pay
>
> > to save lives of military pilots and civilians who might collect an
>
> > explosive delivery if the first time they see a jammed GPS is in combat.
>
> > Stop whining about it, deal with it in an adult fashion for pitys sake.
>
> >
>
>
>
> Couldn't the military pilot accomplish the same thing just by turning
>
> off the GPS on his plane?

"Couldn't the military pilot accomplish the same thing just by turning
off the GPS on his plane?"


I think GPS testing may also include misinformation broadcasted to confuse the enemy. While flying during GPS testing some soaring pilots have noticed position errors, up to one hundred miles or so.

[Mike the Strike]

Are we surprised?... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Beams

Did Churchill really have English scientists divert WW2 German aircraft so that they bombed Dublin? Just think what we could do with jammed GPS - precision guiding weapons to the wrong target!

Mike

[kirk.stant]

On Thursday, February 28, 2013 10:40:01 PM UTC+1, Tom K (ES) wrote:
> I like that the AF pilots are training with GPS jamming, it kinda makes it hard to drop a JDAM without it. They might have to do some of that "pilot sh*t". :)

"The Force, Luke, use the Force!"

Better still, a skilled WSO with a Sniper pod and the good old Laser Guided Bomb. Bonus is you get to see your target blow up in real time.

Best of all, guns. No one has yet found a way to jam a bullet...

As far as the argument that since we are taxpayers we therefore have paid for GPS and should have unrestricted access to it - Try that argument at your local air base and see if they let you jump into an F-16 and take it for a spin..."But I paid for it, dammit, so I got's the right to fly it! Now how do you start this thing?"

My position is that all my tax money was used to pay for GPS and LJDAMS and the military has my permission to jam it at will. Guys who complain about military GPS training, OTOH, their tax money paid for free cell phones for welfare moms and my retirement 8^)

Seriously, if the FAA wants to use GPS, then they are responsible for coordinating with the military for joint use.

Waiting for spring!!!

Kirk
66