Electronic warfare is disrupting global shipping navigation systems

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Even the brief Iran-Israel war exposed a critical flaw in satellite systems like Global Shipping, which manages global shipping, leaving the industry that accounts for 80% of global trade vulnerable to massive jamming, Bloomberg reports.

Recently, merchant ships have increasingly begun to experience the consequences of geopolitical conflicts. In hot spots, the navigation systems of tankers and container ships are damaged, making navigation almost impossible. All navigation equipment connected to GPS systems fails.

Captains and crew are forced to resort to more old-fashioned methods of navigating the ship, such as using radar to manually plot the ship's course and having more officers visually scan the water.

Jamming of navigation signals in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea caused by electronic warfare activity due to tensions between Israel and Iran is another reminder of how vulnerable shipping lanes are, especially those that support $2,8 trillion in annual trade.

It also highlights a fundamental security flaw in an industry responsible for shipping 80% of global trade – an industry that has come to depend on electronic positioning systems to show mariners exactly where they and other ships are. As a result, ships either disappear from navigation screens altogether or are virtually transported far out to sea. Such disruptions are a very new danger to global shipping.
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  1. Sarcastic realist
    Sarcastic realist
    +3
    30 June 2025 05: 52
    Captains and crew are forced to resort to more old-fashioned methods of navigating the ship, such as using radar to manually plot the ship's course and having more officers visually scan the water.

    Let them prepare the sextants, otherwise they've gotten too relaxed...
  2. biger
    biger
    +4
    30 June 2025 06: 01
    There are gadgets like a magnetic compass and a sextant. It's time to remember how to use them.
    1. vladnemo
      vladnemo
      0
      30 June 2025 11: 13
      Gyrocompass, radio direction finder, locator, echo sounder, sextant and forward to the lighthouses, I walked like this all my life
  3. Semyon Sukhov
    Semyon Sukhov
    +1
    30 June 2025 14: 29
    Captains and crew are forced to resort to more old-fashioned methods of navigating the ship, such as using radar to manually plot the ship's course and having more officers visually scan the water.

    - author, before publishing material that you understand, you should show your work to specialists.
    The navigation systems of tankers and container ships are damaged, making it almost "impossible to steer" - after all, the vast majority of ships are not directly controlled by GPS signals.

    navigation systems.... are damaged

    - distortion or jamming of signals does not result in damage to navigation systems.

    All navigation equipment connected to GPS systems fails.

    - nothing breaks down, everything remains in working order and continues to operate when the jamming stops.

    more old-fashioned management methods

    - not old-fashioned, but traditional. Moreover, periodic use of radar and bearing of coastal landmarks is necessary for navigation and is carried out to control the operation of GPS.

    ... for manual plotting of the vessel's course...

    If the author means plotting on paper charts, then for his information, most ship owners have ordered the destruction of chart collections and their use is impossible. On electronic charts, route plotting is included manually anyway...
    In any case, one assistant can handle the task of managing the vessel, and in difficult navigational situations, it is essential to increase the watch...

    As a result, ships either disappear from navigation system screens altogether.

    - but they don't disappear from the ARP screens, so there are no horrors or problems here either...
    However, there is one - with the introduction of modern navigation systems, the level of professionalism of the navigation staff has decreased in inverse proportion to the degree of development of these systems... In the same way, AI is dumbing down the younger generation...
  4. Bulanov
    Bulanov
    +1
    30 June 2025 22: 05
    Does this also apply to military ships and combat aircraft?