Starting [yesterday], it appears the US military will be testing a device or devices that will potentially jam GPS signals for six hours each day. We say “appears” because officially the tests were announced by the FAA but are centered near the US Navy’s largest installation in the Mojave Desert. And the Navy won’t tell us much about what’s going on.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a flight advisory for January 16-24 warning civilian and commercial pilots that, “GPS testing is scheduled as follows and may result in unreliable or unavailable GPS signal.” The notice is issued under the authority of U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group 4 (CSG4). The GPS jamming by U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group Four from Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, is in support of a large training exercise currently taking place off the U.S. east coast.
The good news for most people in the American southeast is that the vast GPS jamming exercise is unlikely to disrupt civilian and commercial, ground-based GPS such as automobile navigation and fitness users. It is probable that some commercial and civilian air and sea traffic GPS systems will be heavily impacted by the ongoing Carrier Strike Group 4 GPS denial exercise.
Warren Morningstar, the Airline Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Live Executive Producer said in an internet broadcast on January 14, 2020, that, “Well, here we go again, the United States military could be upsetting your navigation with GPS jamming.” Morningstar went on to say, “If you find that jamming is causing a safety of flight issue, you can tell air traffic control, ‘stop buzzer’, ATC will tell the military to knock it off.”
