[SystemSafety] GPS jamming

Mike Rothon mike.rothon at certisa.com
Fri Jul 12 13:56:53 CEST 2019


Hi Dewi,

Agreed, I too find this worrying.

Sorry, I made a mistake earlier. Standard equipment is single / dual 
Universal FMS, coupled to Honeywell Primus 1000 navigation receivers and 
displays  etc.  I think it is safe to assume this was a WAAS fit.

I suspect there are many different levels of spoofing - including 
spoofing the combined GNSS / WAAS solution. It is conceivable that any 
protection offered by WAAS can be defeated.

Perhaps the moral of this incident is: backup any primary navigation 
source with an independent system (VOR, DME, even NDB, clock and compass!)

Mike

*Mike Rothon* M::+44 7718 209010 mike.rothon at certisa.com
*Certisa* Safety, Testing, Documentation and Certification. ISO 
9001:2015 certified.
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<http://www.certisa.com/>

On 12/07/2019 11:57, Dewi Daniels wrote:
> Mike,
>
> That is very puzzling and worrying. I would have expected a Cessna 
> Citation 560XL flying IFR to be fitted with a WAAS receiver. My 
> understanding is that WAAS was intended to detect spoofing as well as 
> jamming. The WAAS specification states, "WAAS provides the additional 
> accuracy, availability, continuity and integrity necessary to enable 
> users to rely on GPS for all phases of flight, from en route through 
> approaches with vertical guidance, at all qualified airports within 
> the WAAS LPV coverage area". Either the equipment on the aircraft was 
> not working as intended, or WAAS itself does not work as intended. I 
> would have expected either possibility to be investigated with some 
> urgency.
>
> Yours,
>
> Dewi Daniels | Director | Software Safety Limited
>
> Telephone +44 7968 837742 | Email d 
> <mailto:ddaniels at verocel.com>ewi.daniels at software-safety.com 
> <mailto:ewi.daniels at software-safety.com>
>
> Software Safety Limited is a company registered in England and Wales. 
> Company number: 9390590. Registered office: Fairfield, 30F Bratton 
> Road, West Ashton, Trowbridge, United Kingdom BA14 6AZ
>
>
>
> On Fri, 12 Jul 2019 at 11:21, Mike Rothon <mike.rothon at certisa.com 
> <mailto:mike.rothon at certisa.com>> wrote:
>
>     The incident report is available on the NASA ASRS database at
>     https://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/search/database.html. Search by Report
>     Number (ACN) for 1565516.
>
>     It was a Cessna Citation 560XL, a mid-size business jet. These are
>     reasonably well equipped, usually a single or dual Honeywell
>     Primus 1000 package (when built).
>
>     I thought this system was capable of DME/DME as well, but I have
>     no idea how the solution would be compared or prioritised against
>     a solid WAAS signal.
>
>     It would seem that the action was more 'spoofing' rather than
>     jamming, so probably the avionics thought it was getting a good
>     signal (I'm speculating here though).
>
>     It is worth noting that the report was made by a qualified
>     controller. His / her assessment is quite definitive and chilling
>     really.
>
>     Mike
>
>
>     On 12/07/2019 10:40, SPRIGGS, John J wrote:
>>
>>     Hi Dewi,
>>
>>     The original article does not tell us enough; if it were an
>>     airliner, it could not use ‘vanilla GPS’ and would have to have
>>     the RAIM capability mentioned in 1.7.1 of the document to which
>>     you linked.
>>
>>     I suspect that it was one of those small aircraft that have a GPS
>>     antenna stuck to the windscreen, which can itself degrade the
>>     solution by occluding satellites.
>>
>>     John
>>
>>     *From:*systemsafety
>>     <systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de>
>>     <mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de> *On
>>     Behalf Of *Dewi Daniels
>>     *Sent:* 12 July 2019 10:25
>>     *To:* The System Safety List
>>     <systemsafety at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de>
>>     <mailto:systemsafety at techfak.uni-bielefeld.de>
>>     *Subject:* Re: [SystemSafety] GPS jamming
>>
>>     I'm puzzled. I thought the whole point of WAAS (and EGNOS) was
>>     that the pilot would be alerted if the GPS calculated position is
>>     inaccurate. See section 1.7.2 of
>>     https://www.gps.gov/technical/ps/2008-WAAS-performance-standard.pdf .
>>     Why was the pilot not alerted in this instance? Was he not using
>>     a WAAS receiver? If not, why was he relying on a vanilla GPS
>>     receiver for navigation?
>>
>>     Yours,
>>
>>     Dewi Daniels | Director | Software Safety Limited
>>
>>     Telephone +44 7968 837742 | Email d
>>     <mailto:ddaniels at verocel.com>ewi.daniels at software-safety.com
>>     <mailto:ewi.daniels at software-safety.com>
>>
>>     Software Safety Limited is a company registered in England and
>>     Wales. Company number: 9390590. Registered office: Fairfield, 30F
>>     Bratton Road, West Ashton, Trowbridge, United Kingdom BA14 6AZ
>>
>>     On Wed, 10 Jul 2019 at 12:49, Robert P. Schaefer <rps at mit.edu
>>     <mailto:rps at mit.edu>> wrote:
>>
>>         Thought this would be of interest:
>>
>>         NASA report: Passenger aircraft nearly crashes due GPS disruption
>>
>>         https://www.gpsworld.com/nasa-report-passenger-aircraft-nearly-crashes-due-gps-disruption/
>>
>>         Along the lines of “Who the heck would jam GPS in the
>>         continental US?”,
>>
>>         I’ve got an anecdotal story from one of Haystack’s scientists
>>         who was trying to collect GPS data
>>
>>         (L1, L2 data is useful for measuring solar activity in the
>>         Ionosphere) during the solar eclipse in August 2017.
>>
>>         He was unable to collect data because of GPS jamming. The
>>         story was that truckers use GPS jammers so they
>>
>>         won’t be tracked by their employers.
>>
>>         bob s.
>>
>>         research engineer
>>
>>         MIT haystack observatory
>>
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