Russian efforts to protect one of its most important military bases in Syria is causing GPS headaches in the surrounding Middle East—even in nearby Israel. GPS jamming and spoofing designed to overpower legitimate GPS signals and replace them with fake ones is meant to protect Khmeimim Air Base, but is causing problems as far away as the island of Cyprus.

According to the Times of Israel , pilots flying throughout the Middle East began encountering GPS disruptions in the spring of 2018. The problem includes GPS jamming, in which a third party attempts to prevent the satellite-based navigation system from reaching receivers, and GPS spoofing, in which the third party broadcasts a fake signal to make GPS devices think they're somewhere else other than where they actually are.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visiting Khmeimim Air Base, December 2017. Mikhail Klimentyev Getty Images

The problem was initially limited to high-flying aircraft; the signal is apparently ground-based, and the curvature of the Earth limits its effectiveness at longer ranges to higher-flying aircraft. In recent weeks, however, the signal has affected flights as far away as Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport (above), as aircraft take off and land. This suggests that the transmitter has been relocated to a higher elevation. GPS disruptions have also been reported at Larnaca International Airport on the island of Cyprus, approximately 140 miles away.

According to Todd Humphreys, a professor at the University of Texas, the source of the GPS disruptions is Khmeimim Air Base. Humphreys, using a variety of tools including sensors on the International Space Station, says he is “90 to 95 percent” confident the base is the source. “[The signal] is so strong that I can see it from space,” Humphreys told the Times. Humphreys is an aerospace engineer specializing in satellite-based navigation.

Drones and munitions used in the January 2018 attack on Hnemimim Air Base, shown in a Russian Ministry of Defense briefing on the incident. Vadim Savitsky Getty Images

Popular Mechanics reported on the jamming just weeks after it came online, at which time it was noted to be strong enough to interfere with U.S. military drones equipped with anti-jamming capability. The jamming started about three months after a mass drone attack against Khmeimim Air Base , Russia’s main air base in Syria. Ten drones were launched against the base, which the Russian government claimed used GPS to home in the sprawling facility. Another three drones targeted Russian forces at the port of Latakia.

Russia claims all of the drones were successfully shot down. Still, despite the apparent successful use of air defense systems, it seems likely that Moscow rushed GPS jamming equipment to Khemeimim to disrupt future attacks. Russia has reportedly also conducted anti-GPS efforts in the Baltic and the Crimea, with a report released earlier this year implicating Russia in nearly 10,000 incidents of GPS spoof.

Source: Times of Israel

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