GPS jamming · guide

GPS jamming vs spoofing

Two opposite attacks

Jamming and spoofing both defeat satellite navigation, but in opposite ways. Jamming denies the signal: it floods the frequency with noise so the receiver simply loses its fix and knows something is wrong. Spoofing forges the signal: it broadcasts a stronger, fake signal so the receiver trusts a false position and acts on it — often with no warning at all.

That difference matters for a drone. Under jamming, your aircraft knows it has lost GPS and can fail safe. Under spoofing, it may confidently fly to the wrong place. FLYAWAY detects and shows the two on the map separately.

Where each one dominates

Jamming is densest over the Baltic and around Kaliningrad. Spoofing is more common over the Black Sea, the eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf, where aircraft have been recorded jumping hundreds of kilometres from their true position. Both are read live from the accuracy that aircraft broadcast.

What it means for your flight

If you fly in a jammed area, treat GPS as unavailable and be ready to fly manually. If you fly where spoofing occurs, be sceptical of a fix that looks perfect but does not match what you see. Either way, a few precautions keep a bad fix from becoming a lost drone.

Common questions

Is jamming and spoofing the same thing?

No. Jamming and spoofing are opposite attacks: jamming denies the GPS signal so the receiver knows it has lost its fix, while spoofing forges a fake signal so the receiver trusts a wrong position without warning. FLYAWAY detects and maps both separately.

Is spoofing more dangerous than jamming?

For an autonomous drone, spoofing can be more dangerous because the aircraft trusts the false position and flies to it, whereas jamming usually triggers a visible failure the pilot can react to.

Does FLYAWAY show both?

Yes. FLYAWAY separates jamming and spoofing into distinct layers, read from the GPS accuracy aircraft report over each area.

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