The Ministry of Civil Aviation has confirmed that several major airports in India, including Delhi, have faced instances of GPS spoofing and GNSS interference, leading to operational disruptions and prompting heightened security responses.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu stated that flights operating near Delhi and other major airports have reported receiving false or jammed GPS signals that can affect onboard navigation systems.
The minister noted that after the DGCA made it mandatory in November 2023 to report all cases of GPS jamming or spoofing, regular reports have been coming in from across the country. According to the ministry, interference has been reported from airports in Kolkata, Amritsar, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai, in addition to Delhi. This marks a wide geographical spread of navigation-related disturbances in the Indian aviation network.
The ministry has clarified that India continues to maintain a Minimum Operating Network, which includes conventional ground-based navigation and surveillance systems such as radars, VORs, and DMEs. This ensures that flights can operate safely even when satellite-based navigation becomes unreliable.
Indian aviation agencies, including the DGCA and AAI, are monitoring the situation closely and investigating the source of the interference. Globally, GNSS disruptions are often linked to military activity, illegal jamming devices, cross-border signal spillover or rogue transmitters. The government has not yet disclosed what is causing the interference in India.
The confirmation in Parliament reflects growing global concerns over satellite-navigation vulnerabilities. For now, authorities say enhanced reporting, technical monitoring and robust backup systems are being used to safeguard flight operations while the source of the disruptions is identified.
What is GPS spoofing?
GPS spoofing is a form of interference in which a device transmits counterfeit signals on the same frequencies used by GPS satellites. These fake signals overpower the genuine ones, preventing aircraft receivers from locking onto accurate satellite data.
Unlike GPS jamming, which blocks signals entirely and causes the aircraft to lose positioning, spoofing misleads the navigation system by feeding it false coordinates, making pilots believe they are in a different location. Both jamming and spoofing can significantly disrupt aircraft navigation systems, increase pilot workload and affect operational efficiency.
