The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) have expressed concern about restrictions to airspace and airports caused by the intentional jamming of GPS during military exercises.
In a letter to the FAA and Department of Defense (DOD), the organizations recognized the importance of DOD’s mission and the agency’s need to simulate the loss of GPS as part of its effort to defend and maintain the global navigation system.
However, as NBAA and AOPA officials noted, the National Airspace System (NAS) has become increasingly reliant on GPS as the primary source of navigation and aircraft system functionality, while reducing reliance on ground-based navigational infrastructure.
“Despite reduced operations in the NAS over the past year, general aviation continues to show increased activity and volume, exceeding commercial airline operations,” the letter states. “In recent months, operators have continued to report operational impacts and reduced access to airspace and airports resulting from intentional GPS jamming events.”
The associations’ letter also noted the aviation community had not received a response from the FAA or DOD to a 2018 RTCA report on the operational impacts of intentional GPS interference, which included more than two dozen detailed recommendations to limit the operational impact of these events on civilian air traffic.
During the RTCA deliberations, the FAA and DOD acknowledged that the frequency and impact of these intentional jamming events grew significantly over the preceding decade and would continue to escalate, the trade groups added.
“The growing reliance on GPS in the National Airspace System, combined with the increasing frequency of intentional GPS jamming events, makes it imperative that the FAA and the DOD have mitigations in place to ensure the safety and reliability of the NAS during these events,” said Heidi Williams, NBAA director, air traffic services and infrastructure. “We look forward to working with the agencies to employ the RTCA report’s recommendations and ensure our national security and the safety and efficiency of the NAS.”
“It is vital that pilots have continuity and access to optimal navigational and safety tools, of which GPS is vital,” said Jim Coon, AOPA senior vice president of government affairs and advocacy. “We strongly support our warfighters, but we believe DOD and FAA should review their GPS testing processes so that our nation’s airspace continues to be as safe as possible.”
It’s not about using GPS or any other platform to target. It is about taking down a grid, jamming signals, or causing deliberate inaccuracies by bad actors.
Maybe if the FAA hadn’t mandated the eggs in one basket thing, we would still have a few NDBs around? Pretty cheap to keep (I used to be involved in the taking care of CBE off Cumberland MD). Much more so than VORs.
With those one could fly cross country even with the whole GPS system dead. As it is, if you know the freqs and call signs, one could use broadcast stations as NDBs to navigate (the low end of the AM band) assuming one still had the equipment in their plane. And one could do this IFR.
The “tough beans” response may have some appeal, but ignores that the whole NextGen thing is totally GPS dependent with little option for opting out without losing access to a lot of airspace and GA capability. VOR/DME/NDB stations have been disappearing as have airborne receivers for them and associated published approaches. “Magenta lines” are a convenience for VFR, but essential for IMC. Too, while outright outages are bad, I’ve had it happen to me (near military bases and not NOTAM’d), interference with positional accuracy are worse, since the former result in a “flag” and the latter generally not.
IMHO anyone that believes the ““Magenta lines” are a convenience for VFR, but essential for IMC.” needs to rethink how safe their IMC flying really is.
To the non-poetical types: fundamental to IFR navigation is knowing exactly where one is, whether depicted by magenta lines or green ones or a needle or arrow. Perhaps there are a few still referencing exclusively traditional navaids, but only a few and odds are high that in another dozen years even the skeleton of that system will be firmly in the closet. Otherwise, GPS is the sole reference. Keep messing with it and CFIT becomes a more popular NTSB designation.
GPS is not a civilian system. It is owned and operated by the military for military purposes. The military has the legal authority to selectively deny access to the system, and do so often, mostly for wartime training but also for real world situations. We civilians are lucky that President Regan authorized us to access it back in the 80’s. I agree “it’s like moving into someone else’s house then complaining about the way they live”.
IMHO Pilots need to re-learn SCATANA, which was actually implemented on Sept 11, 2001, and it’s implications for flight. They also need to practice how to actually navigate and not be so dependent on the “Magenta Line”.
YMMV
You may want to pay a visit to “http://gps.gov” and check out the “Governance” section. (Also, note that it’s a “.gov” website, not a “.mil”.)
The system may have been developed by the military and it may still be managed by them, but it has always been done with taxpayer funds. And if it ever was really “theirs”, that stopped being the case when their Commander in Chief told them so nearly 40 years ago. It became legally not the case when Congress passed laws saying as much. And any remaining notion that it was solely a military asset became completely unsupportable when Congress started appropriating even more taxpayer money to the (civilian) Department of Transportation to start augmenting the system for civil use.
Rather like moving into someone else’s house then complaining about the way they live.
I would suppose in times of peril any signals not compromised for the GA benefit can also be used by any other regime to remotely locate any target.
Keep VORs and ILS, they’re harder for missiles to track.
“Any other regime” need not rely on our GPS system. Assuming they don’t have their very own constellation of navigation satellites, they can always borrow GLONASS (Russia) or Galileo (EU) to achieve the same result. Eventually, BeiDou (China) and NAVIC (India) will probably be options as well. Considering that many cellphones can already use GLONASS for position information anywhere in the world, it’s not exactly difficult. Consumer UAVs can (and often do) have the same capability.
And that is ignoring the very legitimate option to just use a decent inertial navigation solution to achieve comparable results without any dependence on a satellite constellation. These are far cheaper, more reliable, and more available than they once were, to the point that they too can be found on non-military UAVs. And they are more than accurate enough to be dangerous.
Point being, the notion that denying GPS over CONUS is a matter of national security is strained (at best) at this point. While GPS might have started out being the DoD’s “house”, that notion started dying the moment the decision to start eliminating terrestrial navigation infrastructure (in favor of GPS-based options) was made. The decision to make it integral to ADSB operation was the last nail in its coffin. General Aviation didn’t make those decisions, the Government did. More over, you can barely run a competitive construction company or commercial farm without augmented GPS at this point. So, it’s not just General Aviation.
Those are facts and they aren’t new. If the military has objections to that, they know where to call and complain, but it isn’t NBAA or AOPA.
Oh, and by the way, don’t kid yourself that VOR and ILS (or any other transmitter) can’t be used as (or is even difficult to use as) a beacon for a weapon seeker head or as a part of a guidance solution. They could. It just doesn’t make any sense when there are so many far better alternatives readily available!
Not kidding myself at all. Simply that my vast knowledge on world situations, and former military radar instructor, doesn’t compel me to write a chronicle that either goes over the heads of the masses, or is preaching to the choir….😊