Abstract: To study the damage effects of lightning electromagnetic pulses on the UAV airborne GPS module, the understanding of the transient interference, permanent damage process and the damage threshold of GPS modules by lightning electromagnetic pulses was obtained, through a combination of simulation and experimental analysis. Based on the analysis results of lightning current, CST was used to simulate the complex electromagnetic field and coupling voltage on the GPS cable. The data communication ports of the typical airborne GPS module was subjected to a lightning pulse injection test. The research results show that: with the continuous enhancement of the injected lightning pulse, the influence on the GPS output waveform kept on increasing. And finally, the function to transmit position information was lost and physical damage occurred. The lightning impulse damage threshold of the GPS data input port is 314.5 V, the lightning impulse damage threshold of the GPS data output port is 235.2 V.