Global positioning system (GPS) disruptions continue to affect critical infrastructure worldwide following a 500 per cent increase in spoofing incidents last year, industry experts told Arabian Business.
The ongoing surge in jamming and spoofing incidents coincides with rising geopolitical tensions and poses risks to aviation, shipping, telecommunications, and financial systems that rely heavily on satellite navigation.
“Recent industry reports show a rise in spoofing. In 2024, a 500 per cent increase in spoofing incidents was observed,” said Ivan Pisarev, Regional Technical Lead – META at Group-IB. “Much of this has coincided with geopolitical flashpoints and increased regional tensions.”
From July 15 to August 15, 2024 alone, approximately 41,000 flights experienced spoofing incidents. Overall, last year saw a 62 per cent jump in GPS disruptions over conflict zones compared to 2023 — 430,000 incidents versus 260,000 the previous year.
The Gulf region is particularly vulnerable due to its strategic importance and proximity to conflict zones, experts said.
“Due to geopolitical reasons, we might expect GPS jamming and spoofing to be prevalent on a daily basis for defensive reasons alone,” said Luca Ferrara, General Manager at AQNav, SandboxAQ. “Being a hub for global air travel further complicates the issue and increases the prevalence of the problem in terms of people impacted.”
Regional data shows that approximately 200 flights per day are currently impacted by spoofing over the Gulf and Israel. In the Baltic Sea, a single jamming incident on March 23-24 of last year affected over 1,600 aircraft. A notable maritime incident in mid-June 2025 near the Strait of Hormuz contributed to a collision when GPS interference affected navigation systems.
Critical dependencies
GPS underpins billions of dollars of economic activity daily, with applications extending far beyond consumer navigation.
“GPS underpins billions of dollars of economic activity every single day,” Ferrara said. “Today, entire industries would grind to a halt without GPS.”
The technology is crucial for precise timing in financial transactions, telecommunications synchronisation, and data centre operations. According to the European Agency for the Space Programme, annual shipments of GNSS receivers are projected to grow from 1.8 billion units to 2.5 billion units by 2031.
“The deeper GPS gets embedded into our infrastructure, the more critical its reliability becomes — and the harder it is to ignore these disruptions,” Pisarev noted.
Emerging solutions
Both public and private sectors are developing alternative navigation technologies to address these vulnerabilities.
The UK has made significant progress with quantum navigation, conducting a trial in May last year at MoD Boscombe Down where an aircraft was equipped with a Quantum Inertial Navigation System (Q-INS).
“The UK has already committed to deploying quantum navigation systems on all their commercial aircraft by 2030,” Pisarev said.
Other innovations include magnetic navigation systems that detect Earth’s unique magnetic “fingerprints” for positioning.
“We’ve developed a system inspired by nature. Many birds and whales navigate by sensing the Earth’s magnetic field,” explained Ferrara. “We’ve applied the same principle to create highly detailed magnetic maps of the Earth, which our systems can use for positioning even if GPS is down.”
Meanwhile, the European Union plans to enhance Galileo authentication and encryption systems by 2026, while military forces in several countries are returning to training with traditional navigation tools as a precaution.
Call for action
Experts are urging faster implementation of resilience measures across industries.
“There needs to be more concerted efforts to introduce new technologies, processes, and procedures into the operations of airlines, shippers, and logistics companies to improve resiliency to GPS outages,” Ferrara said.
Pisarev emphasised the need for a multi-layered approach: “There must be more signals than interference (multi-GNSS + LEO + eLoran). The receiver must be smarter than the attacker. The system must not lose time. The attack must be visible to everyone.”
Aviation authorities including the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and various national aviation authorities, have issued guidance bulletins on handling GPS disruptions. Pilots have reported false terrain warnings and various systems malfunctioning during spoofing incidents, including Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning Systems and flight management systems.
As autonomous systems become more prevalent in global economies, the urgency of addressing GPS vulnerabilities will only increase, experts warned.
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