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What Happens When GPS Goes Dark?
Why It Matters
As GPS underpins critical infrastructure, transportation, and national security, disruptions can cause accidents, financial losses, and military setbacks, making resilience a national priority. Understanding the scale of the threat and the gaps in detection and response helps policymakers, industry leaders, and the public push for robust backup systems and stronger regulatory frameworks.
Key Takeaways
- •GPS timing underpins finance, telecom, and industrial control systems
- •Cheap GPS chips turn navigation into single point failure
- •Jamming and spoofing can misdirect vehicles, costing millions
- •Nations deploy terrestrial backup systems like eLoran to ensure resilience
- •Lack of detection network hampers rapid response to GPS interference
Pulse Analysis
The Global Positioning System has become the invisible backbone of modern infrastructure. Beyond navigation, its ultra‑precise timing signal synchronizes cell‑tower networks, high‑frequency trading platforms, and SCADA controls in factories. \n\nThreats to this dependency are escalating.
Military actors in Ukraine and the Middle East regularly jam or spoof satellite signals, while accidental interference has disrupted air traffic in Dallas‑Fort Worth and Denver. Advances in micro‑electronics mean a software‑defined transmitter can be bought for a few hundred dollars, enabling criminals to reroute a million‑dollar whiskey shipment or mislead autonomous drones. \n\nMitigation requires more than patchwork fixes.
Several countries have built terrestrial alternatives—China’s fiber‑linked eLoran network, Europe’s hybrid GNSS‑E‑Loran systems, and similar broadcasts in the UK, France, South Korea, and the UAE—providing redundant timing and positioning that are immune to space‑based interference. In the United States, however, a lack of coordinated detection infrastructure and unclear legal authority hampers rapid response. Developing a nationwide monitoring grid, leveraging cellular networks for signal triangulation, and establishing clear enforcement protocols are essential steps to protect the critical services that depend on GPS today.
Episode Description
GPS and GNSS systems quietly power nearly every aspect of modern life, from financial transactions and power grids to aviation and emergency response. But what happens when they’re disrupted?
In this episode, host Ken Miller speaks with Dana Goward, President of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, about the growing threats to GPS and GNSS infrastructure. They break down how jamming and spoofing work, why these attacks are becoming more accessible, and how real-world incidents have exposed critical vulnerabilities.
We invite you to share your thoughts, questions, or suggestions for future episodes by emailing host Ken Miller at host@fromthecrowsnest.org or by visiting us on our Instagram @fromthecrowsnestpodcast.
To learn more about today’s topics or to stay updated on EMSO and EW developments, visit our homepage.
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