Myanmar quake: Indian Air Force relief aircraft faced GPS spoofing

The Indian Air Force (IAF) detected signal interference when one of its planes entered the Myanmar airspace to carry out a humanitarian operation in the aftermath of a massive earthquake that hit the Southeast Asian country last month.

 

India was among the earliest responders to offer support to Myanmar, where more than 3,350 people died and 4,850 were injured in the 7.7 magnitude quake, through a military operation titled Brahma.

 

According to an Indian government source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the GPS spoofing attempt was thwarted early during India’s humanitarian operation in Myanmar.

 

The IAF declined to comment on the matter.

 

The air force used the C-130 and C-17 aircraft across seven flights to Myanmar over late March and early April to transport large teams of medical and communications personnel of the Indian Army and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), as well as tonnes of relief material that New Delhi sent. The Indian Navy sent four of its ships to Myanmar with additional relief material during that period.

 

A spoofing attack is launched with the intention of “corrupting signals” of a system by falsifying data. While military aircraft around the world expect GPS spoofing over conflict zones or hostile areas, any signal mixup, if undetected, could be dangerous for both military and civilian planes, purely from a safety perspective.

 

The source said the IAF pilots were prepared with measures such as backup systems when the "GPS issue" emerged.

 

It is unclear if India’s humanitarian operation was the intended target of the spoofing.

 

The Indian Army, which set up a field hospital in Mandalay, also sent a team of army engineers to assist the local authorities in Myanmar to assess the damage of collapsed infrastructure such as bridges, besides carrying out humanitarian activities. Myanmar’s communications lines were also badly hit.

 

According to a joint statement by the Quad governments of the United States, Japan, Australia, and India — issued on April 4 — a commitment was made by the grouping to give Myanmar $20 million for the post-quake rebuilding.

 

India and Myanmar share a land border. The other two countries in the immediate neighbourhood are China and Bangladesh.