Recent US Navy collisions at sea - GPS spoofing/cyber issue? Update 17 March 2025
UPDATE: An AIS reconstruction of the Solong/Stena Immaculate collision seems to show no GPS spoofing or interference. AIS signals show the Solong directly approaching and then impacting Stena Immaculate. The captain of the Solong (a Russian) is being held by British authorities for manslaughter.
What's new: A suggestion that the USS Harry Truman's collision in February and the collision involving an oil tanker chartered to the U.S. Navy on the 10th of March both involved GPS spoofing and possibly other cybersecurity issues.
Why its important: The great powers are involved in low level electronic and cyber warfare. If these incidents involved intentional interference, the level of conflict could be escalated or escalating.
What else to know:
WE DON'T NECESSARILY ENDORSE THE POINT OF VIEW IN THE POST BELOW, BUT OFFER IT FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.
We do know of several adverse instances for U.S. forces that almost certainly involved GPS signals being jammed or spoofed. Understandably, the U.S. government has never said GPS interference was a factor.
flyingpenguin
Naval Integrity Breach: Chinese Hackers Crash Second U.S. Military Ship in a Month
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The?USS Harry Truman collision?on February 12th appeared to be just an isolated incident. Now we know it was merely the opening act.
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) was involved in a collision with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M at approximately 11:46 p.m. local time, Feb. 12, while operating in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt, in the Mediterranean Sea.
Barely a month later, a?far more devastating crash?has unfolded off England’s coast—this time targeting a chartered U.S. military fuel supply line.
Just before 10 a.m. local time (6 a.m. ET), a Portuguese-flagged container ship called the Solong careered into the oil tanker, called the Stena Immaculate, which was at anchor in the North Sea about 10 miles off the English coastline, according to the ship tracking tool VesselFinder.
What demands our immediate attention: Weather reports from?nearby coastal stations?indicated misty conditions with limited visibility that morning, potentially making the ships’ crews even more reliant on their electronic navigation systems. The 2005-built Portuguese-flagged?Solong?was traveling at full cruising speed—16 knots—when it slammed?broadside?into the anchored?Stena Immaculate. Let me be absolutely clear: such a collision at 8.23 m/s directly into the 183-meter length of a stationary high-sided oil tanker is beyond negligence—it represents a catastrophic systems-level breakdown or, more likely, deliberate external manipulation.
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The Suez canal has a history of bad GPS quality. It's within the range of "Cairo scenario" GPS spoofing that started a week after the 7th of October 2023, described in the Ops Group report. Even before that, the NATO shipping centre report from 2021 says "Merchant vessels continue to regularly report observations of GNSS interference when in or near Port Said/Egypt", and German Aerospace Center (DLR)'s analysis of data collected from a vessel back in 2017 show sophisticated jamming .
Solutionprovider for Mission Critical PNT, IoT and 5G Telecom Ctrl Cmd and Trusted Precise Wireless Timing, TPWiT.
21 小时前There is a recording available, I have NOT confirmed that it is the live data, showing one minute recording of the accident. https://www.vesselfinder.com/news/29016-WATCH-AIS-data-reconstruction-video-of-the-collision-between-oil-STENA-IMMACULATE-and-container-ship-SOLONG-in-the-North-Sea
I think we all have lot more questions. Top of the list is why did Solong hit an anchored vessel? Was the autopilot on or off? Was the autopilot connect to a radar with collision avoidance? Since the captain of the Solong has been charged with manslaughter this would indicate a strong line of investigation for human error or omission. The Marine Accident Branch is still investigating. Whilst the loss of life is very sad, we should be thankful that more souls were not lossed and a far larger environmental disaster did not occur. Plus that the vessels have not sunk and the impact of that has so far been avoided. I would like the focus to be on salvage of both vessels.
Solutionprovider for Mission Critical PNT, IoT and 5G Telecom Ctrl Cmd and Trusted Precise Wireless Timing, TPWiT.
1 天前The coast of UK is has massive traffic indeed.
Solutionprovider for Mission Critical PNT, IoT and 5G Telecom Ctrl Cmd and Trusted Precise Wireless Timing, TPWiT.
1 天前Yes, this is very interesting indeed. As with the latest crash, the Captain was arrested, not held in custody as per normal. A captain of a ship as some of us know, is not the one at the helm, that's the task of firstofficer, 2nd officer or 3rd officer together with ABs. How was the primary RADAR used, as standalone or via the ECDIS. What kind of onboard 'compass-system' was in use? ...earlier days a gyro was in use for input to the RADAR, but these days this is very often replaced by a 'GPS-compass' What is the TIMING-input to their systems? What was the sailingplan for both vessels? What was the callouts from the tankervessel? Was it really rigged signalwise as a anchored vessel, what was the situation onboard there, did their ARPA issue a CPA-warning, was their AIS- antennaposition in the correct location? Was it anchored in the correct location, outside main waterway? Had it been drifting? What was the situation onboard the cargovessel when it comes to fatigue/rest as it had departed short time ago? What shorebase services are overseeing or controlling the area, when did they realize that the CPA became too small? Had the crew proper training&certifications? ...and so many other questions...what' s their history? etc etc