With reports of aircraft GPS interference, including jamming and spoofing, skyrocketing worldwide, original equipment manufacturers are responding with solutions.
From 2024-2025, reported jamming incidents rose 67%, while spoofing reports increased 193%, according to the International Air Transport Association 2025 Safety Report.
“It’s becoming a severe problem in many parts of the world, leading to a lot of flight disruptions in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa,” explained Ben Mohr, director of offering management, alternative precision navigation technology offerings, Honeywell Aerospace. “The majority of these instances are aimed at military operators, but the range of these ‘GPS jamming’ units is causing issues with commercial and business operations as well.”
One reason for the proliferation is that bad actors can relatively easily build GPS spoofing or jamming systems.
“The technology to create a spoofing device is affordable now, and the parts are readily available worldwide,” Mohr said. “Because of the very low power of a commercial GPS signal, it doesn’t require much transmitting energy to override it.”
Related: International Business Jet Pilots Share Best Practices Against GPS Interference
Manufacturers are responding with technologies designed to counter these potentially debilitating systems. For example, Honeywell Aerospace’s Alternative Navigation Architecture (HANA) software solution is designed to provide accurate navigation in GPS-denied or degraded environments.
“HANA is our latest alternative navigation system, designed to counter these threats by providing precise information on the aircraft’s position, velocity and orientation when GNSS signals are unavailable,” Mohr said. “It makes use of alternative sensors such as vision-based/external camera navigation, magnetic anomaly-aided navigation, low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite navigation and other modalities.”
“With HANA, we can provide an upgrade path to GPS denied/degraded capabilities to a system with enhanced navigational capabilities without having to install a bunch of new boxes on the aircraft.”
Ben Mohr Director of Offering Management, Alternative Precision Navigation Technology Offerings, Honeywell Aerospace
When primary GPS is lost, HANA can use available onboard sensors to provide accurate navigation information, Mohr said.
Unlike legacy avionics “box solutions,” HANA is software-based, enabling it to optimize available sensors and inputs. “With HANA, we can provide an upgrade path to GPS denied/degraded capabilities to a system with enhanced navigational capabilities without having to install a bunch of new boxes on the aircraft,” Mohr said. “For example, if the aircraft has a LEO satellite connection, we can use that as a source for HANA.”
Because LEO satellites orbit at much lower altitudes – between 400 and 1,200 miles – their signals are stronger, making them harder to jam or spoof.
Mohr said HANA can also use magnetic anomaly navigation inputs, which measure minute variations in Earth’s local magnetic field, enabling the system to determine the aircraft’s speed, direction and altitude.
“We’re also working on radar terrain aided navigation capabilities that compare data from the aircraft’s radar altimeter to a terrain map to determine the location and speed,” he said. “Since most aircraft already have the radar altimeter, that makes the software upgrade path very easy.”
Many Potential Applications
Mohr said HANA is flexible software that can be adapted to various onboard systems and aircraft needs. Instead of being a “catalogue part number,” HANA is envisioned as a multilayer solution that can be adapted and upgraded as its capabilities evolve.
“We want to broaden the use cases as much as possible to make the software useful to as many different users and different host systems as possible,” Mohr said. “We want to get the capabilities out in the field as quickly as possible to help those operators who can use it in its current form.”
Mohr said the system will provide the same navigational cues as traditional GPS units. “The output will be the same as the navigational systems on the aircraft – latitude, longitude, altitude, velocity and attitude,” he said. “The crew will be notified of the GPS ‘issue,’ but their navigation will be the same.”
While HANA promises a range of anti-spoofing capabilities, Mohr said Honeywell’s development roadmap means it will be a few more years before the technology’s benefits reach business aviation.
Related: FAA Publishes Updated GPS/GNSS Interferences, Jamming and Spoofing Resource
Anti-Spoofing Microchip
Another emerging anti-GPS interference technology is Iridium Communications’ Iridium PNT ASIC, an 8-mm-by-8-mm application-specific integrated circuit designed to provide resilient, alternative positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) data.
By pulling secure signals from the Iridium satellite network, it protects devices from GPS jamming and spoofing. The company describes it as a “leap forward” in security for GPS and other GNSS-related devices against jamming, spoofing and timing interruptions.
Technology to Protect Airports
The MITRE Corp. has been working with U.S. airports to develop a concept of operations (CONOPS) to help prepare for possible GPS disruption events, according to a company press release.
“The CONOPS we developed is a high-level view of how to manage the whole event, from detection to compiling a common operating picture and disseminating that information to all the people and entities who needed it.”
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.