Meaconing is the
interception
In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...
and rebroadcast of
navigation signals. These signals are rebroadcast on the received frequency, typically, with power higher than the original signal, to confuse enemy navigation. Consequently, aircraft or ground stations are given inaccurate bearings.
Meaconing is more of a concern to personnel in navigation ratings than to radio operators. However, communications
transmitters
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...
are often used to transmit navigation signals. Since communications personnel operate the transmitters, they must know how to deal with any communications problems resulting from meaconing.
Successful meaconing can cause aircraft to be lured into "hot" (ambush-ready) landing zones or enemy airspace, ships to be diverted from their intended routes, bombers to expend ordnance on false targets, or ground stations to receive inaccurate bearings or position locations.
The term 'meacon' is a
portmanteau of ''masking beacon''.
Alleged cases of meaconing
Iran says it used this technique (among others) to capture a
USAF RQ-170 Sentinel drone, causing it to crash land. Meaconing in this case could provide a drone with false altitude measurements, causing a crash landing.
Meaconing is among fringe theories for some aircraft crashes, such as
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 and the
2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash
On 10 April 2010, a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft operating Polish Air Force Flight 101 crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing all 96 people on board. Among the victims were the president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, and his wife, Maria, ...
.
"To był zamach"- mówią eksperci Gazecie Polskiej (20 May 2010)
(In Polish)
Acronym
* MIJI (Meaconing, Intrusion, Jamming, and Interference)
In popular culture
In the film '' Tomorrow Never Dies'', a military GPS signal
GPS signals are broadcast by Global Positioning System satellites to enable satellite navigation. Receivers on or near the Earth's surface can determine location, time, and velocity using this information. The GPS satellite constellation is ope ...
is meaconed to send a Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
off course.
In the novel and miniseries of the John J. Nance novel ''Pandora's Clock
''Pandora's Clock'' (also known as ''Doomsday Virus'') is a 1996 NBC miniseries based on a novel by John J. Nance about a deadly virus on a Boeing 747-200 from Frankfurt to John F. Kennedy International Airport. Directed by Eric Laneuville, the ...
'', an attempt to warn the airliner about an impending attack is summarily dismissed as an attempt at meaconing.
The villain of '' Die Hard 2'' changes the Dulles Airport
Washington Dulles International Airport , typically referred to as Dulles International Airport, Dulles Airport, Washington Dulles, or simply Dulles ( ), is an international airport in the Eastern United States, located in Loudoun County and Fa ...
's ATC beacon altitude to below ground level, causing planes' altimeters to provide false readings, thus causing landing planes to crash.
See also
* Radio jamming
Radio jamming is the deliberate jamming, blocking or interference with wireless communications.https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-12-347A1.pdf Enforcement Advisory No. 2012-02 FCC Enforcement Advisory Cell Jammers, GPS Jammers, and O ...
* Interference (communication)
* List of World War II electronic warfare equipment
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
References
{{Wiktionary
Electronic countermeasures