With GPS spoofing incidents surging, APG's new NaviGuard app offers pilots critical tools to ensure navigation accuracy and flight safety.
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Aircraft Performance Group (APG) has launched NaviGuard, a free GPS anomaly detection app, amid a 500% surge in GPS spoofing incidents affecting global aviation safety this year. The Apple iOS app allows pilots to detect abnormal GPS readings on iPads and verify data through radio navigation. The latest updates allow users to edit navigational aid points and share GPS logs with aviation safety departments.
The recent spike in GPS spoofing poses significant challenges for flight crews, particularly in conflict zones. OpsGroup has issued alerts regarding multiple aircraft types encountering false GPS signals, leading to potential navigation failures.
With approximately 1,500 flights affected daily, particularly over high-risk areas in the Middle East, the need for reliable navigation tools is urgent. Since its launch, the app has seen more than 3,000 downloads, reflecting strong demand from the aviation community.
NaviGuard goes back to basics, offering users a way to verify positional data using traditional navaids such as VOR and NDB. It is a lean app that “does what it says on the tin,” said product manager Michael Shama, adding that the APG made this choice to offer the app for free as a service to aviation safety.
Potential spoofing zones are updated with EASA data and update every aeronautical information regulation and control cycle. The app is meant to be a tool for situational awareness and positional verification, not navigation, Shama said. “If you’re flying along the border of Iran, and your GPS says you are here, but you do an input fix and you’re actually there based on your heading, you’re about to have dinner with the Ayatollah.”
Additionally, the app allows users to export data, whether saving it to their own devices or using it to report anomalies to agencies such as the FAA.
Free Aircraft Performance Group App Combats Spoofing
Newsletter Body
Aircraft Performance Group (APG) has launched NaviGuard, a free GPS anomaly detection app, amid a 500% surge in GPS spoofing incidents affecting global aviation safety this year. The Apple iOS app allows pilots to detect abnormal GPS readings on iPads and verify data through radio navigation. The latest updates allow users to edit navigational aid points and share GPS logs with aviation safety departments.
The recent spike in GPS spoofing poses significant challenges for flight crews, particularly in conflict zones. OpsGroup has issued alerts regarding multiple aircraft types encountering false GPS signals, leading to potential navigation failures.
With approximately 1,500 flights affected daily, particularly over high-risk areas in the Middle East, the need for reliable navigation tools is urgent. Since its launch, the app has seen more than 3,000 downloads, reflecting strong demand from the aviation community.
NaviGuard offers users a way to verify positional data using traditional navaids such as VOR and NDB. It is a lean app that “does what it says on the tin,” said product manager Michael Shama, adding that the APG made this choice to offer the app for free as a service to aviation safety.
Potential spoofing zones are updated with EASA data and update every aeronautical information regulation and control cycle. The app is meant to be a tool for situational awareness and positional verification, not navigation, Shama said.