After sources in the military establishment suggested that Indian Air Force’s transport aircraft carrying relief materials to earthquake-hit Myanmar late last month faced “GPS spoofing”, the IAF has said its crew are well capable to handle such situations, and “every mission was achieved as planned”.
GPS (global positioning system) spoofing can be considered to be a form of cyber attack that includes generating false GPS signals to mislead an aircraft. The false signals result in misleading the navigation equipment, posing a significant risk to the aircraft.
“The possibility of degraded GPS availability was published by the Mandalay International airport as NOTAM and all due precautions were put in place to cater for such conditions,” the IAF said in a post on X on Monday.
NOTAM or ‘Notice to Airmen’ is a notice filed with an aviation authority that seeks to alert pilots of an aircraft of potential hazards.
“IAF crew are well capable to handle such unavailability, while ensuring safety of flight and achievement of the designated task or mission. Accordingly, every mission was achieved as planned,” the IAF added.
India sent the first consignment of relief materials to Myanmar on March 29 in a C-130J aircraft and its pilots reported that the plane’s GPS signal was tampered with when it was in Myanmar’s airspace, sources told PTI on Sunday.
New Delhi sent a total of six military transport aircraft to Myanmar, transporting relief materials, field hospitals and rescue teams, with a majority of them experiencing GPS spoofing, they said.
Out of six, five aircraft landed in Yangon and Nay-Pyi-Daw on March 29-30, while one was sent to Mandalay on April 1.
IAF transport aircraft carrying relief materials to Myanmar late last month faced “GPS spoofing”, triggering security concerns as pilots were forced to rely on the backup systems, sources in the military establishment had said.
India had launched ‘Operation Brahma’ to extend assistance to Myanmar after the country was hit by a major earthquake on March 28.
Besides the C-130J Super Hercules, the Indian Air Force also operated C-17 Globemaster heavy-lift transport aircraft to carry relief materials and rescue teams to Myanmar.