Dangerous GPS jamming?

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.