“Exactly. An artfully tailored false signal can overpower the real ones and introduce navigation errors. Screwing with GPS was elevated to an art form at the outset of the Ukraine War. Commercial jets got terrain warnings thirty thousand feet in the air. Transponders gave air traffic controllers bad information. Aircraft clocks would run backward. There’s a lot of geekery involved, but to make anything like that happen you need hardware, a big power source, and the right kind of antenna. The closer you get to your target, the better chance you have of succeeding.”
“How far away would it have been from the crash site?” Conza asked.
“I’d start by looking close, say within two miles, then work outward. The more powerful the system, the farther away it could have been. A fixed site would be simplest from a technical standpoint, but that has practical drawbacks. The hardware would need to be in place ahead of time, and you couldn’t remove it without leaving traces. If this does turn out to be a GPS spoofing attack, I’d guess we’re looking at some kind of mobile system.”
Katie said, “Like mounted on a ship or a vehicle?”
“Yep. A vehicle seems more likely to me, a truck or a big van. It could have parked beneath the final approach corridor, then driven away right after the crash. No ship could get that close—the coastline is twelve miles away. On the other hand, ships have robust power generation and are usually bristling with antennas. We can’t close that door. Now, admittedly, I’m not a technical expert on any of this. Neither are the two of you. But like you said, Katie, the Navy is no stranger to electronic meaconing and spoofing—it’s been around since the Second World War. That’s why I’d like your help. The Navy has some of the best electronic warfare experts.”
She nodded. “You want John and me to look into the possibility that this was an electronic attack.”
“There’s nobody on scene in a better position to chase it. I sent a report detailing what I’ve told you up through the command channels. If any new black box data comes in, I’ll forward it to you right away. The cockpit voice recorder might prove particularly helpful. It could give us hints as to what the pilots were seeing.”
“Okay. We’ll start working on it.”
Carter thanked them, then diverted to the cockpit section.
After he was gone, Conza said in his signature southern drawl,“You see the problem here. If it turns out thiswasan intentional act…”
“It’s going to blow up into a lot more than an air crash,” Katie said, finishing the thought.
“This is the kind of thing that ends up on your dad’s desk.”
“Inside scoop…this is the kind of thing that keeps my dad up at night.”
13
Oval Office
The White House
Washington, D.C.
2331 Local Time
Jack Ryan yawned, page three of the four-page document in front of him going bleary. He was trying to maintain his concentration, but it was nearly midnight. He’d been on the way to his second-floor bedroom, ten minutes earlier, when Mary Pat had buttonholed him and dragged him back to the Resolute desk. That was something she would never do without good reason.
A new SITREP had arrived from Bodrum that required his attention.
Mary Pat now occupied one of the sitting chairs, her personal favorite, a comfortable Chesterfield repurposed from the West Wing. She had her own copy of the printout and a two-page head start.
“This is not looking good,” she said when he finally looked up.
Though he wasn’t quite finished, Ryan figured he had the big picture. He set the report on a desk that had carried theweight of the Great Depression, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and two world wars.
“A GPS spoofing attack,” he said. “We’ve been worried about that for a long time. But if this is true, it would be the first time any real damage has been done.”
“It’s going to take time to nail down proof, but I’m convinced. The question then becomes, who’s responsible?”
“If thiswasan intentional act, it has to be tied to Fulcrum.”
“I can’t see it any other way.”
“That points to Russia.”
“It does, at least in terms of motive. Fulcrum aside, the Russians have been stepping up their sabotage game in recent years. The GRU view it as so successful, they’ve even split off a new section to take over.”
“The SSD,” Ryan said.
