Boeing to lead research on jamming and spoofing risks for eVTOLs

Boeing Aerospace Spain is leading a three-year research effort on detecting and countering jamming and spoofing of satellite navigation signals that could affect autonomous air taxis and similar aircraft. The project is called Validation of Airspace Integration Applications and New Technologies, or VARIANT. It includes Boeing's SkyGrid and Dimetor, an Austrian telecom software company. Dimetor's NAVSentry platform uses artificial intelligence to spot and warn about GNSS disruptions during advanced air mobility operations.

The consortium also includes safety consultancy ANZEN Engineering, AI Methods, QCentroid Labs, Carlos III University of Madrid, air navigation service provider ENAIRE, the Polytechnic University of Madrid, and CRIDA, a Spanish air traffic management R&D organization. The Community of Madrid's technological innovation directorate is providing partial funding.

Low-flying and possibly pilotless eVTOL aircraft and cargo drones would depend heavily on GNSS in dense urban settings, where signals can be unreliable. Without a human pilot to notice navigation errors, positioning accuracy becomes a critical safety issue as more of these aircraft share low-altitude airspace. Jamming drowns out the signal with noise and causes a loss of position. Spoofing can mislead the aircraft about its location.