Electronic Warfare Crashes Global Shipping’s Navigation Systems

Konstantinos Tsotras was captaining his oil supertanker through the Persian Gulf at the height of Israel’s strikes on Iran when it disappeared from his own navigation screen. For the ship’s managers thousands of miles away, it appeared — impossibly — to be on a hilltop near an Iranian gas field.

The Greek captain knew immediately what was happening to the Nissos Nikouria, a 330-meter (1,083-foot) vessel that along with its cargo of Kuwaiti crude was worth about $260 million. His electronic navigation systems had been interfered with, something that happened thousands of times to vessels during the conflict.

Nissos Nikouria.

Photographer: Marine Traffic

Tsotras and his crew had to resort ...