Thursday, January 21, 2016

Has Iran Learned How To Disrupt U.S. Military GPS Systems?

GPS receivers ("GPS navigation device") in a marine application. Wikipedia

Dana A. Goward, CSM: Were US sailors 'spoofed' into Iranian waters?

In 2011, Iran spoofed – or faked – Global Positioning System signals to send a CIA drone off course. Did it do the same to trick Navy vessels into Iranian waters?

As images of captured American sailors competed with those of the President Obama during the State of the Union address Tuesday, viewers across the world asked: "How could this happen?" The world’s most powerful nation with the most advanced navy had been embarrassed on the same day as the president's speech.

After a series of other implausible explanations, the Department of Defense settled on the explanation that the crews on both boats "misnavigated." That in the middle of their trip between Kuwait and Bahrain the two boats accidentally went more than 50 miles out of their way to venture into Iranian waters.

But were they really that poorly trained and inattentive? Is the navigation equipment in the world’s best navy that poor? And was it just a coincidence it all happened on the day of the president’s address? Or was something much more deliberate – and potentially troubling – to blame?

Read more ....

Update: The Story You Aren’t Being Told About Iran Capturing Two American Vessels (Justin King, Anti-media).

WNU Editor: The Pentagon still has not explained why 2 US Navy boats drifted into Iranian waters last week .... We're Still Waiting to Find Out What Happened Off Farsi Island Last Week (Kevin Drum, Mother Jones). Some in the US Navy have already hinted that the GPS units malfunctioned. But the possibility that two GPS units malfunctioned at the same time .... I have trouble accepting that argument. But if they were spoofed by the Iranians .... now that make sense .... unfortunately ..... it opens the door to a lot of uncomfortable possibilities.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

or perhaps a pr stunt to underline the supposed relations between the two countries....