North Korean GPS Jamming

[Mark_Space]

From Fox News today, via AFP:

US Military Plane Forced Down By North Korean Electronic Attack

SEOUL - A US military reconnaissance plane came under electronic attack from North Korea and had to make an emergency landing during a major military exercise in March, a political aide said Friday. The aide said the plane suffered disturbance to its GPS system due to jamming signals from the North's southwestern cities of Haeju and Kaesong as it was taking part in the annual US-South Korea drill, Key Resolve. The incident was disclosed in a report that Seoul's defense ministry submitted to Ahn Kyu-baek of parliament's defense committee, the aide to Ahn said.
Spokesmen for the defense ministry and US Forces Korea declined to comment. Jamming signals -- sent at intervals of five to 10 minutes on the afternoon of March 4 -- forced the plane to make an emergency landing 45 minutes after it took off, the aide quoted the report as saying.
The signals also affected South Korean naval patrol boats and speedboats, as well as several civilian flights near Seoul's Gimpo area, according to the report.

Seoul mobile users also complained of bad connections, and the military reported GPS device malfunctions as the South and the US were staging the drill, which was harshly criticized by the North.

The Communist state has about 20 types of jamming devices, mostly imported from Russia, and has been developing a new device with a range of more than 62 miles (100 kilometers) near the heavily-fortified border, the Yonhap news agency has said.


Read more: US Military Plane Forced Down By North Korean Electronic Attack (http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/us-military-plane-forced-down-by-north-korean-electronic-attack-20110909-ncx#ixzz1XTP17fiq)

[Wensleydale]

Good job that we didn't rely on GPS and stop training navigators then.....:ugh:

[Willard Whyte]

And sacked half of those who have been trained...

[Osansolo]

Can anyone offer a reason why loss of gps would force an aircraft tomake an emergency landing . There is more to this story.

[Karsten99]

Wasn't there some GPS jamming used as early as during Allied Force 99 in the Balkans?
This kind of "attack" should not come as a surprise at all!

[exgroundcrew]

Obviously North Korea is not the only one as published below by the MOD

The MoD has informed Ofcom of the following GPS jamming exercise:
Dates: Jamming will be conducted on a maximum of 3 week-days in the period 10-21 July 2011.Times: 0900 -1730 BST
Location: Jamming aircraft will orbit at 10,000ft above mean sea-level (AMSL) along a 50nm flightpath on a heading of 270°T from Kirkwall, starting 10nm to the west of Kirkwall and ending 60nm to the west of Kirkwall
Possible areas affected: The GPS jamming is likely to affect civilian Standard Positioning Service (SPS) receivers over a large area. A minimum jammer to signal vulnerability of 30dB has been assumed for a civilian receiver. Signal theory suggests that a SPS civilian receiver should have approximately 32dB of jamming resistance.

[kinteafrokunta]

The commies in North Korea just want the snooping s.o.b's to get out of their windows. If someone comes to my windows trying to pry open my shades, I gonna sock it to them. I gonna shine a blinding light onto their freaking demonic eyes to send them fleeing back to their bat caves. This spy vs spy stuff, raising tensions with war mongering and then selling offensive weaponry to the neighboring sheepish countries are sure going to prime up the floundering economy using the arms industry. It's such a tiring strategy decades in , decades out.

[Karma022202]

Having spent a long time supporting the US reconnaissance capabilities in that area, I find this a little hard to believe. A GPS failure would not, I say again, would not, have been a sufficient reason for a decision to land.

[Airborne Aircrew]

Having spent a long time supporting the US reconnaissance capabilities in that area, I find this a little hard to believe. A GPS failure would not, I say again, would not, have been a sufficient reason for a decision to land.


One wonders, were these to be Naval aircraft, might their iPods have been affected? :E

[brakedwell]

Perhaps their degraded GPS steered them up a farm track :)

[VinRouge]

Good job that we didn't rely on GPS and stop training navigators then.....:ugh:

Sorry chap, ring laser gyro backup means that the nav brevet for modern aircraft at least, is still defunct.

[jamesdevice]

this is a new jamming system allegedly with a 100km range
North Korea developing GPS jamming device capable of disrupting signals more than 100 km away (http://www.fareastgizmos.com/other_stuff/north_korea_developing_gps_jamming_device_capable_of_disrupt ing_signals_more_than_100_km_away.php)

if it jams GPS it could take out comms as well as other systems. This gives an idea of what GPS jamming can do to non-military systems

GPS chaos: How a $30 box can jam your life - tech - 06 March 2011 - New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20202-gps-chaos-how-a-30-box-can-jam-your-life.html)

[Airborne Aircrew]

Buggers up those cheap JDAMs targeted at specific targets then... :sad:

[jamesdevice]

reading a bit more, I suspect this new device spoofs GPS signals rather than simply jams them.
With simple jamming, you'd know as the GPS would simply stop working. With spoofing, you wouldn't know if you had a valid signal or not. Or where you were (or not...)
I remember around thirty years ago reading a translation of a declassified Russian report (it had been released in a Russian journal) of how they'd spoofed Loran-type beacons around the Black Sea, which ended up with a Hercules losing the plot and getting shot down over Soviet territory. From memory it was a USA aircraft operating out of Turkey on an electronic recce flight- and until the release of the story it was an unexplained loss as the crew incorrectly reported their location right up to losing contact.
If the North Koreans were trying similar tricks it would explain the emergency landing.

[2port]

JamesD

It was one of the first Herc losses excluding prototypes / test aircraft etc:

ASN Aircraft accident Lockheed C-130A-II Hercules 56-0528 Sasnashen (http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19580902-2)

2P

[Mark_Space]

Meaconing!

...and it looks as if you have just given the textbook definition...

[dervish]

Possible areas affected: The GPS jamming is likely to affect civilian Standard Positioning Service (SPS) receivers over a large area. A minimum jammer to signal vulnerability of 30dB has been assumed for a civilian receiver. Signal theory suggests that a SPS civilian receiver should have approximately 32dB of jamming resistance.


Wonder what the purpose was? If the locals only needed 32dB resistance and yet years ago we had well over 40dB resistance on military kit, then this is pretty low level stuff.

The New Scientist article was very interesting. Thanks for the link.

[Whopity]

The MoD has informed Ofcom of the following GPS jamming exercise: But deliberate interference with other wireless stations is in breach of the Telecommunications Act!

Of course GPS does not transmit in an Internationally allocated part of the radio spectrum, therefore it is like Radio Caroline, a "Pirate" and on that basis the MOD get away with its jamming trials.

Taking this a stage further, if it is essentially an illegal station, surely all the government depts that utilise it are condoning illegal activity if not acting illegally themselves. Whatever happened to Galileo?

[jamesdevice]

if you dig a bit, you find that several various jamming trials have occured.
Here's advice warning of a series at STANFORD TRAINING AREA, EAST ANGLIA
http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadbasic/pamslight-2161780B6DB40411111A69F18A2056BD/7FE5QZZF3FXUS/EN/AIC/P/076-2011/EG_Circ_2011_P_076_en_2011-09-08.pdf

reports on trials carried out by the lighthouse authorities. Interesting reading
Maritime Jamming Trial Shows GPS Vulnerabilities | GPS World (http://www.gpsworld.com/transportation/news/maritime-jamming-trial-shows-gps-vulnerabilities-6878)

Portreath in 2007
MoD boffins in Cornwall GPS-jamming trials ? The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/06/mod_gps_jamming_trial_cornwall/)

[middleground]

Some systems use the time code from GPS as well as PSN data. It may be the Time code issue as opposed to PSN data. Just a though

[Trim Stab]

reports on trials carried out by the lighthouse authorities. Interesting reading
Maritime Jamming Trial Shows GPS Vulnerabilities | GPS World (http://www.gpsworld.com/transportation/news/maritime-jamming-trial-shows-gps-vulnerabilities-6878)




The accuracy of the GPS signal in La Spezia harbour used to be degraded by the Italian MOD. One night entering in pitch darkness I sailed into a militi (mussel) farm partly as a result.

The other part of the problem was me for not reading the warning on the chart...

[tucumseh]

Not exactly jamming related, but in 1995, long after GPS was first fitted to our aircraft, it was revealed an ambiguity in the wording of a key GPS specification meant manufacturers were implementing it wrongly. The effect was cumulative errors built up over time (during a single flight).

The first MoD aircraft modified to correct this only entered service in 2002.

I remember when this was notified to other aircraft offices most ignored it. Nothing was done to establish which systems were correct and which were wrong. This also raised an interesting question - the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. Some offices reckoned the GPS unit in the aircraft would fail more often, so concentrated on providing more, instead of reverting to other NavAids. Others reckoned the main failure mode would be loss of satellite signal, multiple aircraft units would be useless, so concentrated on other backup systems. I always thought the latter a more sensible approach, given we didn't control the satellites. This simply highlights that, not very long ago, GPS was very immature. For example, it wasn't cleared for use in the Chinook Mk2 in 1994, despite having been fitted in the Mk1 some years earlier. You were allowed to switch it on, but not rely upon it in any way. I dare say there is still much to learn.

[Karsten99]

GPS is one of the core technologies in western defense.
So influencing it has for sure a lot of attraction for any potential adversary.

Brute force direct jamming might be the easiest thing to deal with. At least you notice that you have a problem.
A more nastier way will be some kind of deception. I remember reading once a article about jamming that said "the most effective jamming is when the target doesn't know its being jammed".
For example many guided weapons rely on GPS guidance. i am not confident that these computer are smart enough to detect some subtitle jamming that messes up thier guidance just enough to miss thier target by lets say a mile.

[Canadian Break]

Meakoning?!

[jamesdevice]

Meaconing (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Meaconing)

Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007_alternate_theories (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007_alternate_theories#Meaconing)

[Willard Whyte]

Meaconing was often used by the commies in an attempt to lure aircraft off track when flying through the three, I think, corridors to and from Berlin.

[Fareastdriver]

In the early 90s the offshore helicopter industry used Decca as the prime area navaid. The Rnav box had a facility for GPS but in 1994 only one aircraft was fitted as a trial. There was no reason to think that Decca would not continue ad infinitum as equiping all the fleet would cost a lot of money.

Then they closed down the Decca chains...............................

[BBadanov]

Meaconing was often used by the commies in an attempt to lure aircraft off track when flying through the three, I think, corridors to and from Berlin.

Meaconing was also used in Vietnam - if flying near the DMZ or near Laos, they could f#ck with the TACANs in the area.

[Jane-DoH]

Why not just use the compasses on the planes? They still have those right?

[ZH875]

Why not just use the compasses on the planes? They still have those right?


I don't think there is a compass invented yet that can tell you your position.

If you need to use a compass to find out where you are, you will have to wake up the navigator

[Willard Whyte]

Hmm, what? Just dozing you know.

[Ian Corrigible]

Appears that the ROK media's comms were garbled:

No U.S. plane forced down by North Korea jamming: source
Reuters Sat Sep 10, 2011 (http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE7892YV20110910)

A U.S. defense official denied on Saturday that a military reconnaissance plane was forced to make an emergency landing in March because of North Korean GPS jamming, as reported by a South Korean newspaper.

"We have no indication that any aircraft at the time of, or in the vicinity of, this alleged incident was forced to land on an emergency basis," the defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper, quoting a South Korean Defense Ministry report, said on Friday the U.S. aircraft had been involved in military exercises.

It said the North Korean jamming signals also disrupted the global positioning system (GPS) devices of coastal patrol boats and speed boats of the South Korean Navy. Several civilian aircraft were affected.

There are about 28,000 U.S. troops based in South Korea and the U.S. and South Korean militaries hold regular joint drills. The two Koreas are still technically at war, having only signed a truce, not a peace treaty, to end the 1950-53 Korean War.
I/C

[Pontius Navigator]

A couple of years ago there was a trial off Flamborough Head. A vessel was manoevred just off the coast and subjected to GPS jamming. Basically a false signal was introduced that gave a false position. The GPS track passed overland - obviously had the ship relied on GPS it would have gone further offshore but the implication was obvious. (Open source)

Then you can use differential GPS where raw GPS is monitored with external sources. I guess in a way that a car sat nav system used this process with its snap-to-road software.

An Australian author has written a novel about a mership transitting the narrows in Indonesia. It was using differential GPS but priates were using a false beacon to seduce the GPS. Raw GPS would have revealled the correct position.

Many years ago a cruise liner ran aground. It had left Bermuda for New York. On departure the signal man had tripped on the GPS Antenna cable and it was disconnected. No one noticed the navigation display flashing DR for the next 2-3 days. When they made radar contact with the land they 'matched' the radar image to the erroneous nav display and convinced themselves they were on track. They ran aground.

In other words there is no substitute for proper navigation techniques.

[tucumseh]

Pontius, I agree with this. Technology has to be applied appropriately. Differential GPS was first fitted to / used with MoD UK aircraft in 1994, but that doesn't mean all of them need it.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about GPS and what it does. You need only look at the ZD576 BoI report and subsequent MoD statements to the effect that, because the GPS input to SuperTANS was seemingly working, that meant the entire Nav system was both accurate and serviceable. They never did retract this.

[LFFC]

Military jamming of GPS in Scotland suspended (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-15242835) - 10 Oct 11


Jamming of global positioning signals (GPS) during Europe's largest military exercise has been suspended, following complaints from fishermen.

The Royal Navy issued warnings in September and October that GPS in parts of Scotland would be disrupted during Exercise Joint Warrior.

But Western Isles fishermen said the first they knew was when their equipment went offline last Friday.

[alisoncc]

Anyone know anything about the actual electronics involved in generating erroneous GPS readings?

It's just that I use a GPS on the golf course, as do number of my playing partners. It would be a little bit sad if their GPS's gave a distance to the green of 120 metres when it was actually only 90. The jamming device would have to be locally controllable as one wouldn't want to disrupt one's own device at a critical moment. :E

[jamesdevice]

alisoncc

put one of these in your pocket and turn it on / off at the the critical moment

Mini Portable Cellphone & GPS Jammer J-260B [J-260B] - £60.00 : jammer4u.co.uk (http://www.jammer4u.co.uk/mini-portable-cellphone-gps-jammer-j260b-p-6.html?zenid=7e422e562dc2f93d367c05d8662a8f83)

Portable GPS Signal Blocker Jammer [J-260C] : jammer4u.co.uk (http://www.jammer4u.co.uk/mini-portable-gps-jammer-j260c-p-7.html?zenid=7e422e562dc2f93d367c05d8662a8f83)

or even better, try this
Mini Portable Cellphone Jammer J-260A-PRO [J-2600A-PRO(Latest design)] - £99.10 : jammer4u.co.uk (http://www.jammer4u.co.uk/mini-portable-cellphone-jammer-j260apro-p-22.html)

Note that these are apparently legal to own, but illegal to use....