The US Coast Guard Navigation Center (NAVCEN) informed that 20 ships were reported suffering a GPS disruption, in the Black Sea, since 22 June 2017. In view of this, it urges operators to exercise caution and reminds them how to report a disruption and the actions they should take to mitigate the effects of a disruption.
In particular, USCG reminds that indicators of positioning systems interference include an intermittent signal, no signal, or an incorrect signal. Critical information to take note of during a disruption event includes location, time, and period of outage.
Operators should immediately report suspected GPS disruptions or anomalies to the NAVCEN.
The report will be disseminated to the U.S. Air Force GPS Operations Center and the Federal Aviation Administration in an attempt to identify the problem and correlate with any other GPS incidents in the same general geographic location. Depending on the severity of the report, NAVCEN may refer it to law enforcement and/or other federal agencies for further investigation.
The Navigation Center is encouraging mariners to review USCG’s relevant Marine Safety Alert:
