Loran tower image: UrsaNav
Blog Editor’s Note: We are seeing more and more consolidations and partnerships within the PNT community.
We have also seen larger companies that formerly did not have a strong PNT presence acquiring, or perhaps “absorbing” would be a better word, smaller firms that focus on PNT equipment and/or services. Orolia’s acquisition by Safan is the latest example.
This undoubtedly reflects growing awareness of the criticality of PNT services, recognition that current services are not sufficient for the long term because of vulnerability and other concerns, and an expectation that there will be customers for new services.
Certainly, as this article points out, Russia is doing its best to help the United States and the West understand all these things.
– Full disclosure, UrsaNav, Locata, and Orolia are commercial supporters of the RNT Foundation.
Following Russia threat, Locata and Ursanav partner for resilient PNT
Russia’s recent threat that it could blow up all the GPS satellites with its new anti-satellite technology (ASAT) should come as no shock to those following space-related events. In the past, China shot down one of its own low-Earth-orbit satellites (LEOS) using a medium-range ballistic missile, and the United States used a modified antiballistic missile to shoot down one of its own spy satellites.
Blowing up satellites, solar flares, ever-increasing hazards from “space junk” and thousands of new satellites in the launch queue all make space a congested and increasingly dangerous place.
Locata Corporation and Ursa Navigation Solutions Inc. (UrsaNav) have announced a technology partnership specifically aimed at providing resilient PNT (positioning, navigation and timing) solutions to national governmental and commercial interests globally. Combining Locata’s high-accuracy local-area and UrsaNav’s very wide-area PNT produces a potent solution that lessens any nations’ dependency on easily disrupted and increasingly vulnerable space-based signals.
Locata has for many years been delivering proven centimeter-level positioning and picosecond-level timing to demanding users including the U.S. Air Force, NASA and globally significant commercial partners. Professional users in demanding industries such as ports, mining, the military, aviation, automotive, logistics, indoor positioning and high-accuracy timing depend on Locata systems every day.
UrsaNav’s eLoran and LFPhoenix technologies provide nanosecond-level timing, meter-level positioning, and short-message-service-like data transmissions at distances often exceeding 1,000 miles over land and 1,800 miles over water. Its two-way low-frequency time and frequency transfer (TWLFTFT) service is embedded in the PNT signal, providing a wireless timing synchronization conduit between any set of transmission sites.
