CAA denies impact of GPS jamming on Taiwan aviation

航空局否認GPS干擾對台灣航空的影響

CAA official says Uber Eats and Foodpanda 'could be the affected' if GPS jamming occurred


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) is denying a report that GPS jamming allegedly detected over northern Taiwan for five days in a row will impact commercial air traffic.

A retired U.S. intelligence officer has suggested a solar radiation storm could be the cause.

According to TechTarget, GPS jamming is the utilization of a "frequency transmitting device to block or interfere with radio communications." Examples of communications that can be interfered with using the method include phone calls, text messages, GPS systems, and Wi-Fi networks.

On Monday (April 24), Erik Markus Kannike, 25, an Estonia-based chief strategy officer for SensusQ, a European defense intelligence company, reported on Twitter that GPS jamming has been occurring over Taiwan. He wrote that it was the first time he had seen this over Taiwan, and described the situation as "very concerning."

Kannike told Taiwan News that his company's software is able to detect this using data from ADS-B signals, used by commercial aviation. These signals include something called the GPS/GNSS signal-to-noise ratio, which measures the quality of GPS reception planes receive over a specific area. A low S/N ratio indicates that there is jamming of GPS ongoing, said Kannike.

When asked where the jamming may be originating from, Kannike said it was difficult to say but "it could be emanating from a naval electronic warfare (EW) complex." He added the source of the GPS jamming will become clearer as more data comes in.

He conjectured that if the source of the interference was not Taiwanese, then it was possible that it came from a Chinese system on the coast or at sea. Kannike said that EW systems have the ability to jam or spoof electronic communications, including GPS signals, and pointed out that similar systems have been used in Syria and Ukraine.

Based on data from GPSJam, jamming continued on Wednesday (April 26), marking the fifth-straight day this phenomenon has been observed over Taiwan. As of publication, there are two red hexagon-shaped areas where a high level of GPS jamming appears to be taking place. In the FAQ section of the GPSJam website, it states that red hexagons indicate more than 10% of aircraft reported low navigation accuracy.

The areas affected include much of Taipei, southern and western New Taipei, most of Taoyuan City, and parts of western Hsinchu County. The airports that fall under these GPS interference zones include Songshan Airport in Taipei City, Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan City, and Hsinchu Airbase in Hsinchu City.

Asked if this jamming would impact commercial air traffic, Kannike said that "it is already affecting it to some extent, as evidenced by the ADS-B data." He said that similar GPS jamming activity in the Baltic Sea region, near Lithuania, and in Norway and Finland, have caused disruption to air traffic as well.

Consulting firm Knightsbridge Research, posted a tweet saying that over the weekend, GPS jamming was detected over Taipei for the "first time in several years." It said the level of interference was at a "medium level" on Friday (April 21) and escalated on Saturday and Sunday (April 22-23).

Guermantes Lailari, a retired USAF Foreign Area Officer specializing in the Middle East and Europe, told Taiwan News the sun had a “coronal mass ejection” which caused a solar radiation storm starting on April 21. This corresponds to when GPS is said to have become degraded. From Wednesday to Friday (April 26-28), high solar storm activity will continue, according to multiple sources.

"We are entering the next two years the height of an 11-year period of solar activity which is predicted to be much worse than the one 11 years ago," said Lailari.

A representative of the Ministry of National Defense told Taiwan News that GPS systems are not under its purview and recommended contacting the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA). An official from the CAA said the organization has not received any information about GPS jamming over Taiwan airspace.

The official stressed aircraft "would not be affected at all." However, the official added that the food delivery service providers like Uber Eats and Foodpanda, which rely on GPS systems, could be affected if GPS jamming were to occur.