Blog Editor’s Note: The Department of Homeland Security is hosting another opportunity for equipment manufacturers to evaluate their equipment’s performance during live disruption conditions. This could be a valuable opportunity for some to better understand their gear.
As important as this is, we also encourage DHS to take the lead encouraging and/or requiring PNT resilience for critical infrastructure and applications. Resilient equipment is almost always more expensive that gear that is not, so it is not always the first choice of users.
2018 GPS Equipment Testing for Critical Infrastructure
Office: Office of the Chief Procurement Officer
Location: Office of Procurement Operations
A. INTRODUCTION:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is hosting the 2018 GPS Equipment Testing for Critical Infrastructure (GET-CI) event. This event will take place during the fall of 2018. S&T’s GET-CI events are a series of annual evaluation events intended for manufacturers of commercial GPS equipment used in critical infrastructure as well as critical infrastructure owners and operators.
DHS S&T recognizes the importance of accurate and precise position, navigation, and timing (PNT) information to critical infrastructure and has a dedicated multi-year program to address GPS vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure, with a multi-pronged approach of conducting vulnerability and impact assessments, developing mitigations, exploring complementary timing technologies, and engaging with industry through outreach events and meetings. Through these sustained efforts, the goal of the program is to increase the resiliency of critical infrastructure to GPS vulnerabilities in the near term future. Examples of measures that can be taken to enhance resiliency can be found in a DHS issued set of best practices released via ICS-CERT, titled “Improving the Operation and Development of Global Positioning System (GPS) Equipment Used by Critical Infrastructure.”
As part of outreach efforts, DHS S&T continues to host a series of evaluation opportunities for stakeholders to evaluate equipment in unique live-sky signal environments that are only legally possible to create under controlled conditions authorized by the U.S. Government. DHS S&T invites critical infrastructure GPS equipment manufacturers and critical infrastructure owners and operators (CI O&O) to submit applications for participation to the 2018 GPS Equipment Testing for Critical Infrastructure event.
This is a Request for Information for Participation (RFIP) only. Respondents must either (1) have ownership of any intellectual property submitted for the purposes of participating in the event or (2) possess sufficient rights to permit the use of the technology. The Government will not award a contract on the basis of this RFIP. Organizations that respond will not be paid for the information submitted and the Government will not pay for any submission preparation or related costs. The Government will be paying to host the evaluation event and there will be no registration fees. However, participating organizations are responsible for costs associated with traveling to and attending the event, such as transportation, lodging, and other related costs. Respondents who are selected will be asked to enter into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with DHS S&T in order to participate in the 2018 evaluation event.
Documents submitted in response to this RFIP will not be returned. The Government is under no obligation to provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted under this RFIP. There is no guarantee that any submission in response to this RFIP will result in a Government invitation to participate in the 2018 GPS Equipment Testing for Critical Infrastructure event. The Government may or may not use any responses to this RFIP as a basis for a subsequent project.
