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Meeting the challenges of “jamming” and “spoofing” in civil aviation

Business

Since 2018, the civil aviation sector has seen an exponential increase in “jamming” and “spoofing” incidents. These different levels of interference, long associated with the military domain, now also threaten the efficiency of operations and even the safety of commercial flights. To address these new constraints, Safran is now offering to make available its experience acquired in the military field, and to transpose it to the civil sector.

Safran generic aircraft
Jamming - Spoofing

Understanding “jamming” and “spoofing”

“Jamming” and “spoofing” disrupt satellite navigation systems, compromising the accuracy of positioning information essential to aircraft.  

 Jamming consists of emitting high-power radio signals, disrupting or blocking satellite communications and navigation systems. For aircraft, this can lead to loss of GPS signal or degradation of navigation information. Imagine the loss of radio signal you experience when driving through a tunnel, but this time at an altitude of over 10 000 meters!  

Unlike jamming, spoofing is a more insidious and much more recent method. It aims to deceive GPS receivers by sending them false signals, indicating an erroneous geographical position. Aircraft systems then calculate an incorrect position, creating trajectory errors that are difficult for pilots to detect. Imagine programming your GPS for a specific destination, only to be unknowingly directed to another address due to fraudulent signals. In the aeronautical world, such positioning errors can have dramatic consequences.  

Daily estimated Number of flights affected by GPS spoofing by Spoofed to region

Spoofing and jamming risks on the rise in civil aviation

Since the first recorded case of spoofing in civil aviation in August 2023, the number of incidents has continued to rise. By August 2024, up to 1500 cases of “spoofing” per day were recorded for airliners, mainly around conflict zones such as Israel, Lebanon, Russia... This interference, often emitted by military bases and having an omni-directional range, affects civil aircraft even at high altitude.  

Non-optimized trajectories, detours, risk of collision: the upsurge in these new cases of spoofing and jamming compromises flight operational efficiency and could threaten passenger safety.  

Skynaute

SkyNaute: Safran's solution for flight safety

SkyNaute is an ultra-compact hybrid inertial navigation system that can be integrated into both military and civil aircraft. Highly reliable and powerful, it ensures precise, safe navigation, thanks to innovative, patented technology.  

In the defense sector, Safran Electronics & Defense is currently developing IDM (Interference Detection Mitigation) algorithms for its products, enabling them to detect GNSS interference and switch to a resilient, autonomous source in the event of signal interference, thus ensuring mission continuity.  

Detecting and mitigating bad interference in real time is becoming fundamental and a necessity to guarantee global air safety now and in the future.  

With its expertise in the military field, and once the necessary qualifications and certifications have been obtained, Safran will also be able to offer our civil aircraft an effective anti-jamming/anti-spoofing solution in the face of the growing threats of jamming and spoofing.