Air carrier Captain reported GPS jamming in the vicinity of White Sands missile range caused them to deviate off course.

Date: 2025-10 · Aircraft: Commercial Fixed Wing · Phase: cruise

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-less-severe|deviation-track-heading-all-types|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-clearance

Synopsis

Air carrier Captain reported GPS jamming in the vicinity of White Sands missile range caused them to deviate off course.

Narrative

While cruising in between El Paso and DRRVR on the PINNG1 arrival for Phoenix within a 200 to 300 mile range of White Sands range; the military was actively jamming as usual. Several aircraft queried ABQ Center their GPS malfunctions and one other flight was very concerned as they were not sure of their navigation from GPS jamming. We started getting a repetitive plethora of navigation and GPS ECAM messages just like everyone else. Albuquerque Center told us to proceed direct to DRRVR and the FO (First Officer) stated we were 4 miles right of course indicated by there ND (Navigation Display) and I showed 1.7 miles left of course. We queried ATC and received proceed direct to BNNKR. We had been following another aircraft that we could see their lights and our paths quickly started to diverge. I asked ATC about our course and whether that other aircraft was on the PINNG1 arrival. ATC stated they were and that we were off course. ABQ gave us heading and altitude to bring us manually back onto the PINNG1 arrival. As we continued; my iPad own location showed us approaching BRDEY; while the ND had us somewhere around 20 miles off. We told ATC we were RNAV unavailable and they gave us radar vectors to intercept an ILS with an uneventful land in Phoenix. We entered the discrepancy of the condition and 11 mile GPS drift in the logbook and upon checking the logbook later the GPS system had reset and was operations check normal.Cause: While I understand; the military exercises as a retired veteran; the potential effect it has on every aircraft in that airspace with the number of passengers on board each aircraft combined is concerning. On a different given night with inclement weather and turbulence in IMC; that whole evolution could have gone dramatically worse.I have experienced jamming multiple times in my long career flying around White Sands however; my younger FO was not quite sure what to make of it and was very concerned asking if we should declare a pan pan.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.