Our enemies found a weakness in essential technology. We must fix it fast
In July, Iran attempted to make good on its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz.Yet the strait had already ceased functioning as reliable commercial infrastructure long before.
Since the conflict started, more than 1,100 vessels recorded GPS and AIS interference in a single day, ships appeared on tracking systems at airports or deep inside Iranian territory, and ship crews navigated one of the world’s busiest waterways by radar alone because satellite navigation could no longer be trusted.Iran did more than threaten a chokepoint.
It demonstrated what a determined adversary can do to the satellite infrastructure the modern world has taken for granted.America depends on a second, invisible choke point: the Global Positioning System.GPS timestamps every credit card swipe and equity trade, synchronizes the power grid and cellular networks, and guides combines through fields, container ships into port, and infantry through contested terrain.That faint signal – engineered in the 1970s in a different time when our enemies weren't as savvy – now carries the weight of the entire global economy and our military edge.
That world is gone.Global aviation logged roughly 430,000 jamming and spoofing incidents in 2024, a sharp 62% increase in a single year.
A basic jammer can be built from off-the-shelf parts for a few hundred dollars.GEN.JACK KEANE WARNS AGAINST TRUSTING IRAN ON STRAIT OF HORMUZI know what reliable navigation means in combat.
As a Ranger, I never thought about GPS in combat.It located my team, guided the aircraft above us, and synchronized fires without ever announcing itself.
We took it for granted.Today’s service members enjoy no such luxury.
We are sending American forces into contested spaces with a vulnerable system designed half a century ago.Oil tankers and cargo ships line up in the Strait of Hormuz as seen from Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, March 11, 2026.(AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)No incremental upgrade can fix GPS.
Its weakne...