Cyber threats prompt return of radio for ship navigation.

The risk of cyber attacks targeting ships' satellite navigation is pushing nations to delve back through history and develop back-up systems with roots in World War Two radio technology.

Ships use GPS (Global Positioning System) and other similar devices that rely on sending and receiving satellite signals, which many experts say are vulnerable to jamming by hackers.

About 90 percent of world trade is transported by sea and the stakes are high in increasingly crowded shipping lanes. Unlike aircraft, ships lack a back-up navigation system and if their GPS ceases to function, they risk running aground or colliding with other vessels.

South Korea is developing an alternative system using an earth-based navigation technology known as eLoran, while the United States is planning to follow suit. Britain and Russia have also explored adopting versions of the technology, which works on radio signals.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shipping-gps-cyber-idUSKBN1AN0HT

 

I figured this would be coming.

We depend on satellites and drugs to much.

 

Backup for long range navigation is great; now if only the USN could figure out how to stop running into other ships or each other.

 

I was thinking maybe this is a cover up for that incident.

Smoke on the water.

 

Unfortunately, not just one incident. The recent collision involving the USS Fitzgerald off Japan is only the latest.

Check out the crash of the USS Porter in 2012, and also USS Hartford in 2009, thankfully both with no loss of life. Both, ironically, occurred in essentially the same place, ie, Straight of Hormuz too.

The latter had some interesting info in the Investigation Findings; the musical analogy fits one of the causes too, ie, "At the time of the collision, the navigator was listening to an iPod in the wardroom."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hartford_and_USS_New_Orleans_collision#Investigation_findings

 

Backup navigation? What happened to this method?

 

And into lighthouses-----

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

 

How quickly we forget...

(about)The last radionavigational aid was OMEGA. In addition to GPS, what killed OMEGA was the fear, in some countries, the the station locations were prime targets for nuclear attack (to wipe out the service).

Dumb to kill it off.

 

Back in the day when I ran commercial ships in Southeast Alaska (1990's), we often would not have LORAN or enough GPS signals due to the mountainous terrain. We did it "old school" by plotting every 15 or 30 minutes on a paper chart and did dead reckoning navigation. My observation is navigators are getting lax and not following well established navigation protocols to ensure safe voyages. Even in if the satellites are available, power outages happen aboard ships that cause electronic equipment to not function. The "modern" equipment is great, but you need to have a "Plan B" (and practice those skills to keep them sharp) in case the primary means of navigation fail.

Goodness, did I just make an argument for keeping CW alive and well in radio;-)

 

The USCG started bringing up some old LORAN sites for testing eLORAN and LORAN back in June.

http://gpsworld.com/eloran-and-loran-testing-underway-in-late-june/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loran-C

http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/europe-gives-up-on-eloran

 

A shame the "forward thinking" previous administration decided to shut down the Omega navigation station north of Havre MT. As I understand it, it was more accurate than LORAN and a great backup for GPS (...JUST IN CASE!). Just sayin'.....

 

A shame the "forward thinking" previous administration decided to shut down the Omega navigation station north of Havre MT.

The decision to shut down Omega and LORAN decisions was not because of the President (or his administration), it was a technology, resource, and budget decision. While it may have been "short-sighted", it was mostly financial. The USCG has had their budget continually cut and they have been asked to do much more with much less. When the Command of the USCG if faced with reduced staff, reduced financial resources, and a growing mission statement, they must prioritize resources given their operating constraints. The USCG is faced with safety of life at sea, drug interdiction, safe navigation for commerce, and many other vital missions, they have to go with the "biggest bang for the buck", and keeping LORAN and Omega stations open as a backup when there are other methods available does not make financial sense. If you want to pin the blame on the government, place it on Congress, as they are the purse strings.

Despite the constraints the USCG had had in the past 20 years, they really rose to the occasion during Katrina. Semper Paratus and thank you to all the members of the USCG for their service.

 

No. Shifting amplitude of a carrier, especially switching it on and off completely, is expensive. Much easier to shift phase or frequency. If instead you mean having radio navigation beacons transmit an identifier by Morse code on FM then you might have something.

 

Point taken about cost, but what I was really referring to was having a "Plan B" way of communicating in case the your SSB gear dies, not as a means of navigation for ships.