Spoofing is a technique to copy and manipulate GPS signals, which ultimately leads to faulty location estimation by the receiver. In contrast to jamming which is the complete blockage of GPS signals and can be found often over combat zones, meaning no position can be estimated, spoofing is more tricky when it comes to navigation. As a misleading process, it can make from minor, a couple of hundreds of meters, to major, hundreds of kilometers in the estimated position.

Figure source: ADS-B Exchange (26/06/2024).

Passenger airplanes, use radio-signals mostly from the American Global Positioning System (GPS) to determine their geographical location (Longitude, Latitude, Altitude) and plan the travel path. But what happens in the cockpit when the received GPS signals are manipulated by third parties, to result in calculation off false position? In the following video* from Op1 talk show, Ruud Stegers – KLM Pilot explains the issue.

*The original language of the video is Dutch. Subtitles from automatic translation can be selected in the down right corner of the video tab, indicated as “cc”.