Crew is capable of handing degraded GPS availability, says IAF on reports of cyber attacks

New Delhi: Following reports of Indian military planes facing cyber-attacks while carrying relief materials to quake-hit Myanmar, the Indian Air Force on Monday said that its crew were capable of handling such situations while ensuring the safety of flights.

“The possibility of degraded GPS availability was published by Mandalay International Airport as NOTAM (Notice to Airmen), and all due precautions were put in place to cater for such conditions,” the IAF said in a social media post.

“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,” it added.

The clarification from Air Headquarters comes in the wake of reports that the IAF transport planes faced "GPS spoofing" in the Myanmar sky, triggering security concerns as pilots were forced to rely on the backup systems.

GPS spoofing is considered to be a form of cyber attack that includes generating false GPS signals, creating navigation anomalies.

The false signals result in misleading the navigation equipment, which creates a significant risk to aircraft and indicates wrong drop zones. Such techniques, according to experts, are seen nowadays in grey zone warfare.

As a part of Operation Brahma launched on March 29 in the wake of the devastating earthquake, New Delhi has sent six military transport aircraft, including C-130J and C-17, to Myanmar transporting relief materials, field hospitals and rescue teams and a majority of them experienced GPS spoofing, sources said. The sources of such attacks also remain unknown.

Air Marshal Sanjeev Kapoor (rtd), an IAF veteran, took to the social media to claim that the electronic interference was possibly hostile and was highly calculated.

“It was electronic interference, possibly hostile and highly calculated. GPS spoofing, a tactic increasingly seen in grey zone warfare, was in play. In remote, post-quake zones, this is more than a glitch,” he wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).