Nearly 1,000 commercial ships a day off the coast of Iran are experiencing interference with their GPS systems amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in the region. The issue, Bloomberg News reports, is being blamed primarily on electronic warfare between Israel and Iran.
Numerous vessels, according to Bloomberg’s analysis, have been affected by GPS jamming, causing some ships to disappear from radar. GPS spoofing, which causes tracking systems to believe ships have moved to different locations, is also on the rise.
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The GPS issues have resulted in disruptions in global trade, particularly among ships traveling in strategic waterways such as the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. Vessels in the Black Sea have also been subjected to GPS disruptions during the Russian war against Ukraine.
Jamming has pushed some ships miles off course and has increased the risk of collisions because avoidance systems have become unusable.
Ships appear to be on dry land
By and large, the GPS jamming does not appear to be intentional. Rather, it may be the result of military activity in a volatile region.
Disruptions are common near Israel’s Port of Haifa, where Israeli air defense systems use GPS jamming to help protect against precision targeting by the country’s enemies.
Many shipping crews have been forced to rely on traditional navigation methods, such as scanning the water by sight. The crew of a Greek supertanker monitoring its GPS saw the ship appear to vanish from the Persian Gulf, only to appear “on a hilltop near an Iranian gas field,” Bloomberg reported.
On Tuesday, June 24, a supertanker appeared to be near a camel racetrack in the United Arab Emirates. Around that same time, another supertanker near Saudi Arabia looked as if it was on land in western Iran.
“The crew on the bridge, they will start panicking because they will see their ship in another position, sometimes on land, which is crazy,” Mustapha Zehhaf, a captain of a ship carrying liquefied natural gas, told Bloomberg.
‘Protect these critical systems’
Spoofing is also believed to be responsible for maritime accidents. In one case, according to Bloomberg, a supertanker collided with another ship near the Persian Gulf shortly after Israel began bombing Iran. The crash resulted in an oil spill that spread over 10 square kilometers.
Some ships are now being equipped with military-grade anti-jamming systems, which cost upwards of $50,000 and often need frequent replacement.
The United Nations’ International Maritime Organization issued a rare warning in March over the disruptions. The organization’s secretary-general, Arsenio Dominguez, urged “all Member States to act to protect these critical systems.”
“The safety of seafarers and shipping relies on the resilience of systems to support safe navigation and communication,” Dominguez said. “Interference with Global Navigation Satellite Systems poses a serious risk to shipping activities, which could cause collisions and grounding.”
