India's GPS disruptions mirror global electronic-warfare patterns

India's recent Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) anomalies, reported across seven major airports since November 2023, match the multi-city, sustained signature of state-grade electronic warfare (EW) observed previously in Russia, China and several Middle Eastern theatres.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA NEW DELHI

Aviation specialists say the pattern of disruption now emerging across India is strikingly similar to incidents abroad where extended bouts of interference were eventually traced to electronic-warfare systems operating near civil air routes.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha this week, Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu confirmed that instances of GPS spoofing or interference had been reported at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. At Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), pilots flying GPS-based approaches to Runway 10 encountered anomalies that forced them to revert to contingency procedures. Other runways equipped with conventional navigational aids functioned normally.

Officials said that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) began systematically collecting data after issuing a November 2023 directive mandating that airlines, pilots and air traffic controllers report any suspected jamming or spoofing within ten minutes.

Since then, a steady flow of reports from major airports has revealed a countrywide pattern rather than isolated glitches, prompting the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to seek assistance from the Wireless Monitoring Organisation (WMO). The WMO, under the Department of Telecommunications, has been directed to deploy additional resources and trace the physical source of the interference.

Globally, similar multi-city or multi-airport GNSS disruption patterns have been documented over the past decade.