In a dramatic presentation at the National PNT Advisory Board this week, Mr. Mark Dumville  of Nottingham Scientific, Ltd. discussed the European GNSS Agency’s STRIKE3 project to detect and classify GNSS interference. The project has a  data base of over 58,000 jammer and other interference events.

As examples of the pervasiveness of the problem in Europe, Dumville cited data collected just the previous week. From just four detectors, over the seven day period:

  • 244 events were detected at a power station
  • 179  at a site along a highway
  • 413 at a major airport, and
  • 1,185 at a location in a nation’s capital city

Many believe that the problem is much greater in the United States. GPS signal interference in the U.S. has idled container ports, interfered with airport landing systems, linked to organized crime, and is undoubtedly responsible for billions in hidden economic losses each year. Yet the U.S. has no program to even determine the scope of the problem.

The European GNSS Agency is interested in sampling GNSS disruption worldwide and is willing to loan detection systems to one or more entities in the U.S.  We understand that, so far, they have not had any takers.

STRIKE3 is a continuation of the DETECTOR project that was discussed at the PNT Advisory Board’s October 2015 meeting in Boulder, CO.