China Disruption of GPS signal over South China Sea
My friend shared this article in Info News. It is a website based in India and is usually not favorable to China.

https://inf.news/en/military/3ab0e6a79af04bff02361b6582307bf0.html

The article said that US Navy faced a loss of the GPS signals in the South China Sea.

Another friend remarked that this news is probably not reliable, as it is difficult to block the GPS signals over a wide area.

I will give my views on this matter.

I first declare that I am not an expert on GPS signal system. I only give this opinion as an informed outsider.

Some two decades ago, I learned that GPS works in this manner:

1.  The US sends out the GPS signals that give a position that is a few meters off the actual location. They want to make GPS not fully reliable to avoid its military use.

2. For its military, it sends out another signal, called the differential GPS. When this signal is combined with the satellite signal, it is able to get the exact location.

I do not know if the GPS is still operating in this manner today. If it is the case, it is possible for China to send out the strong signals to block out the differential GPS signals used by the US military in the South China Sea. 

I do not know whether it is possible for them to block out the satellite GPS signals as well.

China now controls a large part of the South China Sea. It is not difficult for them to set up stations to send out signals to overwhelm the signals from other bases.

Anyway, I am not an expert on this matter. It is just my speculation based on my common sense.

I will wait for further news and expert analysis on this issue. 

Tan Kin Lian

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