Iran jamming GPS signals

[GordMay]

Greetings and belated welcome aboard the CF, guliaka.

[nilespf]

Time to bring out the ole Harpoon anti ship missile. Go ahead and put up a stand off jammer and see what happens.


pn

[AJA]

I would just add a copy of Eldridge’s to that.

[u4ea32]

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

There is some discussion that when Iran captured two of our patrol boats a year or two ago, they spoofed the GPS to bring them off course an into Iranian waters.

From the report I read recently about that incident, it was simply that the patrol boats did not navigate properly (or do much of anything properly -- its a story of gross incompetence at many levels by many people), not that GPS spoofing was involved.

[Dan Mosby]

Sure they have.

I trust western media and our federal government about as much as I trust the Iranian government.

Our elected "officials" are trash, and the morons they put in charge of "defense" are psychophants, which is why my buddy's son got killed in A-stan 13 years after our first deployment there.

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by u4ea32

From the report I read recently about that incident, it was simply that the patrol boats did not navigate properly (or do much of anything properly -- its a story of gross incompetence at many levels by many people), not that GPS spoofing was involved.

Maybe. Maybe there were lax, but there are some serious concerns about possible spoofing. They did bring down one of our drones through spoofing of GPS signals and the government denied that it was possible, then later it came out that it was possible. We may never know the real story.

[Cpt Pat]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Well, along with a compass, dead reckoning, and piloting.

As the old saying goes: "Never be far from a good D.R." (dead reckoned position)


I suggest marking those positions on a paper chart, because it's hard telling what your chart plotter will do when GNSS goes keel up, and it's really hard to plot sighting angles on an electronic chart to get a position fix. I think I'd scratch my screen using my dividers...

[billknny]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

I don’t plan on spending any of my time worrying about this.

Carry on...

Ah, come on Kenomac. You are spoiling all their fun!

Myself, I think some people need to spend more time sailing and less surfing the internet looking for something to worry about and then arguing about it endlessly...

[ArmyDaveNY]

I am not surprised and expect to hear of this more and more. I agree with Kenomac; I am not really concerned about it. I usually use paper charts and only confirm where I think I am with GPS.

Maybe now is the time to find some old Loran gear while it is still inexpensive!

[Cpt Pat]

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

Maybe now is the time to find some old Loran gear while it is still inexpensive!

Sorry. The old LORAN gear won't work. The USCG tore down all the transmitters 10 years ago. https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=loranMain

Not the CG's fault. Obama's OMB cut off all funding.

The proposed eLORAN system is an entirely different, and much more accurate protocol. The old loran gear is incompatible. Here's a good description: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/08/radio-navigation-set-to-make-global-return-as-gps-backup-because-cyber/. Maybe some people here don't care, but the fragility of GPS has many people plenty worried.

A possible current backup is ADF (automatic direction finder) or old-fashioned manual DF using a loop antenna with AM broadcast stations and the few NDB (non-directional beacons) that are still around. Old Timers here will remember spinning DF antennas to home on signals and triangulate their positions. That still works, and it's cheap. If you're a pilot, you probably hate DF because of its gross imprecision. The signals bend around because of reflections and metals in the earth's crust. It's disturbing to fly a straight course while watching the ADF needle wiggling around.

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by Cpt Pat

Sorry. The old LORAN gear won't work. The USCG tore down all the transmitters 10 years ago. https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=loranMain

Not the CG's fault. Obama's OMB cut off all funding.

The proposed eLORAN system is an entirely different, and much more accurate protocol. The old loran gear is incompatible. Here's a good description: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/08/radio-navigation-set-to-make-global-return-as-gps-backup-because-cyber/. Maybe some people here don't care, but the fragility of GPS has many people plenty worried.

Did they actually tear down everything? I thought that while they did dismantle much of it, they didn't complete the job and around 2014 or 2015 they were told by Congress to stop dismantling Loran stations.

I read something that the e-Loran signal is 1.3 million times stronger than the GPS signal so that should make it harder to mess with. I believe nine countries including South Korea and Russia have at least started to install e-Loran and some may well be fully set up by now.

It is certainly a good thing to have.