Royal Navy stops GPS exercise after complaints from fishing crews

In a sign of the increasing importance of civilian uses of Global Positioning Systems, the Royal Navy said Tuesday it dropped the GPS jamming portion of a 13-nation exercise after complaints by fishing crews in Northern Scotland and the Outer Hebrides islands.

The Royal Navy had planned to conduct GPS jamming tests from Faraid Head, on the northern tip of Scotland, and Loch Ewe, some 50 miles to the southwest on the Scottish mainland and east of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

In a notice announcing Exercise Joint Warrior, scheduled for Oct. 3 through Oct. 13, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense had said, "Denial of GPS services through the jamming of the GPS signal is a real and present danger to both military and civilian maritime and air users. The ability to conduct jamming is spread throughout the modern world."

GPS jamming would be conducted during multiple hours of the day within 20 miles of the two Scottish sites, the ministry had said, adding, "naval forces are required to train under such conditions in order to demonstrate the effects it has on systems and to train personnel in other modes of operating."

A Royal Navy spokesman, who declined to be identified by name, told Nextgov the GPS jamming portion of the exercise was canceled Monday due to complaints from fishermen. The spokesman said the Royal Navy provided multiple notices before the exercise by several means, including radio navigational warnings posted on a website maintained by the U.K. Hydrographic Office.

But BBC News reported Monday that Austen Campbell, the skipper of a fishing boat based in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, said crews knew nothing of the jamming exercise until their systems failed Friday. "We weren't notified about it at all," Campbell told the BBC. "We thought it was a problem with our boat, but everyone else started complaining about it."

Rob Gibson, a member of the Scottish Parliament, told the BBC that "distress signals for mariners are effectively silenced because of the GPS jamming. "

The Royal Navy spokesman said the service stopped GPS jamming out of a concern for marine safety after receiving complaints. He said the Royal Navy had received no complaints during similar GPS jamming exercises in April.

The U.S. Navy has two ships deployed to the Joint Warrior exercise -- the USS Arleigh Burke destroyer and the fleet replenishment oiler USNS Kanawha, both home-ported in Norfolk, Va.

Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Turkey also are participants in the Joint Warrior exercise.