Academic Paper from the year 2026 in the subject Engineering - Safety Engineering, The George Washington University (Cyber Security), language: English, abstract: Military operations in the present day consider satellite navigation systems as essential cyber-physical infrastructure which supports their autonomous systems that include unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The BeiDou-3 (BDS-3) system, which became completely operational in 2020, provides enhanced system resilience through its implementation of multi-frequency signals and cryptographic navigation message authentication and bidirectional short-message communication. The system uses these features, which create additional security weaknesses because advanced spoofing and command interception and malware distribution through messaging and ground-segment security breaches canoccur. The research investigates BDS-3 cybersecurity threats for drone warfare in Iran, which will switch to BeiDou for UAV and missile guidance during the 12 day war with Israel due to GPS jamming threats. A refined threat model based on STRIDE incorporates security risks through quantitative measurement, while defensive measures get assessed using technological advancements in machine learning (ML) spoofing detection and multi-sensor fusion for GNSS-denied navigation and anti-jamming methods. The results demonstrate that space, cyber and autonomous domains require multiple AI-powered security measures to achieve operational dominance.