Israel GPS 'spoofing' ABC Australia by Basel Hindeleh and Matthew Doran in Jerusalem and Chérine Yazbeck in Beirut 22 September 2024
Extracts: Booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies are not the only ways Israel has been hitting Hezbollah's communications
Since the start of the Gaza war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been deploying a tactic known as GPS "spoofing" designed to fool enemy missiles and rockets that rely on the global positioning system technology to aim at their target
And while it may have helped deflect some aerial attacks, it has also been disorienting for everyday people — making modern map technology on smart devices unavailable and disrupting important civil infrastructure, commercial aircraft and even dating and food delivery apps
"Spoofing" in terms of GPS, is about making a device such as a mobile phone — or in war, a missile — think it's in a totally different location — and the GPS apps will tell you that you're actually a hundred kilometres away, from where you actually are....
It's not blocking the GPS signal. It's confusing it
Professor Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas told the ABC Australia, initially Israel denied responsibility for the spoofing as it is considered a dangerous act but later acknowledged it was happening, calling it "GPS interruption"
Professor Humphreys says
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"If you're choosing between just jamming the signal and spoofing the signal, spoofing is a more potent defence"
"Because a spoofing signal gets past many of the checks inside a GPS receiver, it can be less powerful and yet have an effect further from the transmitter"
Israel is shielding against any GPS-guided weapons fired in its direction
Despite this, Hezbollah demonstrated its reach and ability to evade defensive systems when it sent in a video drone to film Haifa and when it launched its long-awaited response to the Israeli assassination of military commander Fuad Shukr in late August 2024
Many rocket launches were prevented by a pre-emptive Israeli attack or intercepted by Israel's iron dome defence system but the GPS spoofing may have also contributed to the minimal impact of the strikes
Jennifer Parker, an expert associate with the National Security College at the Australian National University, says
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"When you think about missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles that have been targeting Israel, a lot of them use GPS to actually direct them to the target"
"So if you can jam the GPS, you can actually stop that weapon system from being accurate"
