Imagine waking up, checking your phone for directions, and seeing that your map thinks you’re standing on an airport runway hundreds of kilometers away. Or picture being a pilot mid-flight, suddenly getting alerts that your plane is off course—except it’s not the aircraft that’s confused, it’s the navigation system. This isn’t a scene from a spy movie. It’s the new normal for millions of individuals across regions where GPS spoofing has emerged as an instrument of contemporary conflict and disruption.
GPS—Global Positioning System—is something most of us never even consider. It unobtrusively makes our lives work, from hailing a rideshare to following a food delivery or navigating planes and ships safely to their destination. But as we’ve become more dependent on these signals from space, a new threat has emerged: GPS spoofing. It works by sending out fake signals that trick your phone, your car, a drone, or even a commercial jet into thinking it’s somewhere else entirely.
Spoofing used to take specialized equipment and serious knowledge. Not anymore. Software-defined radios and free simulator software have put it within reach of even hobbyists with technical know-how. But put in the hands of military organizations or governments, GPS spoofing is something entirely different—and much more perilous. While jamming will only block a signal, spoofing tricks it, usually undetected until harm is already done.
Consider what’s occurring in the Middle East. Ever since the recent flare-up of violence in Gaza, Israel has resorted to GPS spoofing as a military defense measure, hoping to deceive incoming missiles and drones. It does that by bathing the region with fake GPS signals to confuse their guidance systems. But it doesn’t only impact weapons—it strikes everyone. Citizens of cities such as Haifa or Beirut have discovered their maps to be useless, their delivery programs lost, and their dating matches appearing in the incorrect country. According to Professor Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas, spoofed locations tend to be entirely arbitrary, occasionally dropping individuals in other countries altogether.
Aviation is also experiencing the effects. Pilots have been complaining of bizarre and unexpected malfunctions in their navigation equipment, sometimes at critical moments. One example: A Turkish Airlines flight en route to Beirut was forced to return to Turkey in mid-flight because interference with GPS rendered landing too risky. Abed Kataya of the nongovernmental organization SMEX said that this type of interference takes away a vital layer of aviation security, leaving pilots to use outdated backup systems or even paper maps. Airbus alone counted nearly 50,000 cases of GPS interference in 2022—a staggering increase that’s caused serious alarm across the aviation sector.
India has also witnessed an increase in GPS-related interferences. Between 2023 and 2025, authorities recorded over 465 instances of GPS interference and spoofing over Indian airspace. Commercial airlines as well as surveillance aircraft have been hit. Indian officials suspect these are part of a larger effort by border neighbors like Pakistan and China to compromise navigation and cover up illicit activities such as the smuggling of drones. The combination of electronic warfare techniques with criminal activities is giving rise to a whole new type of hybrid threat—one that’s difficult to detect and even more difficult to prevent.
And the issue extends far beyond aircraft and mobile phones. Spoofed naval vessels have inadvertently sailed into foreign waters, raising geopolitical tensions and, in some instances, precipitating international incidents. In Lebanon, emergency responders have been delayed or directed to the wrong location when attempting to get to fires or medical emergencies due to GPS directions leading them astray. Even the banking sector is not immune—most banking systems use GPS for time-critical payments and transactions. When those GPS signals are spoofed, it’s not just payments in jeopardy but potentially larger infrastructure too.
So, who is doing it? Although most of these attacks are being conducted by governments or militaries, spoofing technology is increasingly within the grasp of hackers, criminals, and non-state actors as well. It’s cheap, and it’s relatively simple to conceal. For those who wish to bypass authorities or bring about disruption, it’s becoming a popular choice.
Governments and experts are racing to keep up. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the International Air Transport Association are advocating for joint reporting systems, improved incident procedures, and a return to older, non-satellite navigation devices. India is doubling down on its own NavIC navigation system and fitting detection sensors to identify spoofing sources in real time. Tech firms are also intervening, developing more intelligent GPS receivers and combining systems that don’t depend on satellites alone.
This has set off a scramble to remain ahead. Some of the newest defenses are artificial intelligence software capable of detecting anomalies in GPS signals and encrypted signals that are more difficult to mimic. But even though these remedies are hopeful, they’ll take time to deploy on a large scale, and that means the dangers aren’t disappearing anytime soon.
Meanwhile, the world is adjusting. Pilots learn to identify spoofing in real time and use backup means when necessary. Ordinary citizens are accustomed to times when their apps don’t behave quite right. And as differences between military and civilian life dissolve even further, remaining vigilant and creative has never been more crucial.