Featured Map for 29 September 2023:
GPS Spoofing and Airway UM688 in Iraq

Over the past ten or so days, aircraft have been targeted with fake GPS signals, leading to a loss of onboard navigational capability. The majority of these incidents have been along the Iraqi portion of Airway UM688, near the Iranian border. Unlike GPS jamming, which merely causes the loss of GPS and thus reliance on the INS (Inertial Navigation System), the spoofing feeds erroneous data into the system which confuses the INS. (It seems fair to wonder why the INS doesn't detect the mismatch and reject the GPS data.)

Most of the reports have involved failures near Erbil, Sulaimaniyah, and Baghdad, and involved shifts of about 60 nmi.

For further detail, see the OPSGROUP article linked from the References section.

Today's Featured Map shows Airway UM688, which extends from Turkey at the Black Sea through Iraq to the Persian Gulf just south of Basra, Iraq. Also shown (in grey) is the Iraqi portion of the airway shifted east 60 nmi—this is not necessarily the direction of the shifts, but would probably be the worst case.

Finally, the map shows the three Iraqi airports near most of the report locations, plus Tehran for reference.

References and additional information:

• Flights Misled Over Position, Naviation Failure Follows – OPSGROUP (26 September 2023)