Ami Daniel, CEO of maritime intelligence firm Windward, says that since the first US-Israeli strike against Iran on February 28, the GPS or Automatic Identification System (AIS) communications technology of more than 1,100 ships operating in the Gulf region has been disrupted. The company says ships, including nuclear power plants, are shown on maps as if they were inland.
The analysis comes as maritime authorities warned of a “serious” risk to ships operating in the region and as the initial conflict quickly expanded to include countries in the Middle East. At least three tankers in the area have been damaged in the clashes.
“We’re seeing a lot of GPS jamming,” Daniel says of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding areas. He says the level of electronic interference is “well above the baseline” compared to normal interference. “It’s becoming too dangerous to get in and out.”
Over the past few years, attacks against GPS and navigation systems have been on the rise – primarily due to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. They can affect people’s phones or devices, but can also disrupt security and navigation systems in planes and ships. Electronic interference broadly comes in two forms: jamming and spoofing. During jamming attacks, satellite signals are overwhelmed so that positional data becomes unavailable. Whereas spoofing can create false signals that cause an object to appear incorrectly on a map – for example, ships at airports appear as if they are inland.
Inaccurate location data can cause ships to deviate from their course, potentially increasing their chances of colliding with other tankers, becoming stuck, or causing harmful oil spills. In battlefields, electronic interference is often used to disrupt and disrupt the navigation systems of drones or missiles, which may rely on location data to find and hit their targets.
Analysis of shipping data by Windward revealed that levels of electronic interference have been “increasing” in Iranian, UAE, Qatari and Omani waters since the initial attacks on 28 February. Daniel says that whatever activity the company has identified so far has been jamming rather than spoofing. The company’s analysis said it had identified about 21 “new clusters” where ships’ AIS data had been jammed in recent days.
“The ships were misdeployed to airports, nuclear power plants and Iranian soil, creating navigation and compliance risks,” a report from the firm said. “AIS signals have also been directed towards the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant and surrounding waters, while hundreds of other vessels have been making circle-like patterns in UAE, Qatari and Omani waters.”
GPS and AIS interference in the Strait of Hormuz and the surrounding area is nothing new. In June 2025, when Israel and Iran exchanged missile strikes, significant congestion was reported in the area.
While almost all commercial air travel has been halted in the Middle East, there have been signs of electronic interference on planes flying in and around the region before the attacks. “There are at least six new spoofing signatures in the Middle East,” says Jeremy Bennington, vice president of positioning, navigation and timing strategy and innovation at technology firm Spirent Communications. “Hundreds of flights have been affected. However, this has reduced significantly over the weekend as flights have been cancelled.”
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