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What’s new: Legislation introduced to require a report on GPS vulnerability and its impact on national security.
Why it’s important: It is almost always good when senior leaders pay attention to PNT issues.
What else to know:
- This isn’t the first time Congress has required reports on this subject. Over the last 15 years legislation, usually National Defense Authorization Acts, have expressed concern and required reports.
- Most of the time, the reports are done and submitted to Congress, but never released to the public. Even if they are unclassified.
- Studies and reports are just admiring the problem unless they are followed by action. So far there has been little action we have seen to protect the civil sector and infrastructure.
- In 2018 Senators Cruz and Markey introduced, Congress passed, and the president signed the bipartisan National Timing Resilience and Security Act. It required the Department of Transportation to establish a terrestrial timing system to backup GPS. Administrations of both parties have failed to do this and have regularly sought repeal of the act.
Senators urge Pentagon to review GPS risks to national security and infrastructure
A bipartisan pair of lawmakers want the Pentagon to comprehensively assess security risks from foreign powers and other threats that could disrupt military and civilian applications of the Global Positioning System and associated services that the U.S. and its allies rely on.
Broadly, GPS refers to a satellite-based navigation system that supplies information about locations and time on Earth. It’s increasingly vulnerable to intentional attacks and other disturbances, partially due to its historic dependence on weak, unencrypted signals beamed from space.
Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and James Lankford, R-Okla., recently introduced the GPS Resiliency Report Act to help get ahead of GPS-related hazards to America’s foundational systems and public safety.
