The West may be divided on tariffs, but all countries can agree that protecting global navigation satellite systems from interference from China, Russia and Iran is a matter of extreme importance. Disruptions would pose an immense economic and national security threat, costing trillions of dollars daily, dwarfing any market disruptions from tariffs.

Global navigation satellite systems are free services that send positioning, timing and navigation systems to phones, banks and other electric utilities. America has the global positioning system (GPS), Europe has Galileo and China has Bei Dou. But these systems are vulnerable. They depend on satellites, which can be damaged by electromagnetic storms or military attacks. Even with the satellites intact, hacking incidents proliferate, using inexpensive, easily available hardware.

Both China and Russia have shown that they have the capacity to take down Western satellites. The University of Texas student Zach Clements, meanwhile, has traced GPS manipulation to Iran.

The most famous example of hacking took place in 2019, when the British oil tanker Stena Impero was lured into Iranian waters in the Strait of Hormuz while its GPS, “spoofed” by the Iranians, told navigators it was in international waters. The ship was captured and its crew imprisoned in Iran for 10 weeks.

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GPS is vital, but hacking it has never been easier. The world would do well to heed warnings from Admiral Thad Allen, chairman of the US National Space-based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board, on the risks and challenges to the technology.

“Vulnerable to Disruption”

“A great many incidents over the past several years have left no doubt that the system is vulnerable to disruption, both inadvertent and intentional,” Admiral Allen said. “Because so much of our country’s critical infrastructure and supply chains rely on GPS, that infrastructure is itself vulnerable to disruption.”

He is also concerned that America’s GPS is now lagging the capabilities found in Galileo and Bei Dou. GPS needs more complementary back-up and a clearer chain of responsibility for making improvements.

In America, Congress has repeatedly asked the Department of Transportation to install a back-up to GPS, without allocating sufficient funds to do so. In addition, President Trump in his first term assigned government departments the task of assessing the resilience of their GPS systems. Other countries are also lacking sufficient back-ups.

Multiple technologies are available that could be used in the absence of GPS signals, including the use of AI to interpret sophisticated mapping and sensor data, terrestrial radio signals, fiber networks for timing, low-earth orbit satellites for encrypted signals, and Wi-Fi and mobile signals for localization. The UK is looking at quantum navigation, which uses atomic clocks and quantum sensors for timing and positioning.

Some GPS interference is unintentional. In 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration traced pilots’ loss of GPS signal over two days in Denver international airport to accidental transmissions from a government facility. A similar incident happened at Dallas Fort Worth airport later that year.

The Coast Guard collects reports of gaps in GPS coverage all over the world. Examples this year include ships in Finland, the Gulf of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Los Angeles. It’s also easy to spoof the GPS on your own phone, fudging your real locations for advantage. A program called iMyFoneAnyTo promises to “simulate GPS movement safely. Customize routes and speeds”.

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When the first computers went on the market, no one saw a need for the now-ubiquitous anti-virus software. Similarly, GPS was free from hacking in its early days, but today it needs protection. Now the best way to protect GPS and satellite systems is to protect the spectrum, toughen the receivers that get signals, and have multiple sources of positioning, navigation and timing for verification.

The stakes are high. Globally, people use billions of GPS receivers in mobile phones, commercial trucks and buses, and railroads. Cars have navigation systems. Ships, planes and drones use GPS for navigation. Lorries use GPS not only for location services, but also for electronic logging devices, which show whether drivers have been driving for too long and are getting sleepy.

Emergency responders use GPS rather than maps to locate accident sites and get people to hospitals. You don’t want to be waiting for fire engines or ambulances when GPS is hacked or disrupted.

Companies also rely on GPS. Tractors reduce agricultural costs by pinpointing precise places to plant seeds, water and fertilize. Builders use GPS to do the same with nails and studs. Surveyors use GPS for measurements that are out of their line of sight, especially in waterways. Electric power plants rely on this technology to synchronize generators and distribute energy to the grid.

The global cost of GPS interference is too high for world governments to wait for it to fail. This is an area where like-minded governments can and should work together to develop reliable back-ups, both for economic and military security.