this post was submitted on 01 May 2024
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It might be possible for e.g. airliners to use military GPS with anti-spoofing (encrypted GPS signal which is harder to spoof or jam, but which needs special receivers that have to be rekeyed regularly). Obvs that would require some bureaucratic cooperation between the air carriers and the military. Also, at least near airports, ground beacons can be used the same way.
Obviously the stuff with maps and triangulation, or celestial navigation can be done by computer now, instead of by some crewmember with a calculator. But GPS is sure a lot simpler to use.
Spoofing GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and the Chinese system (I forget what it's called) all at the same time might be much more difficult than spoofing just one.
The Chinese one is Beidou and I fail to understand why planes use only GPS when my phone has all 4.
Planes only use GPS because GPS has a very rigorous signal integrity program that others don't have. The "safety of life" requirements on GPS are onerous. Also, GPS has both L1 C/A and L5 (not enough L1C or L2C to be useful yet) signals. I don't think Galileo or GLONASS have extra signals, but I think Beidou does (not an expert on other systems).
Just this January, ESA completed the safety of life analysis requirements for Galileo to be used as a civil aviation signal.
The military won't give access to the decryption keys to that many organizations, especially foreign organizations. The crypto tech and keys are both classified, so anyone handling a unit would have to be given at least Secret clearance. Anyone doing the key updating would need to have Top Secret clearance (I think, not 100% on that). Every plane would have to be constantly monitored at all times (both in flight and while at foreign airports) by cleared personnel to ensure the boxes aren't taken by adversarial states.