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What’s new: An opinion piece by Sean Gorman about the need for a resilient PNT architecture that includes terrestrial systems.
Why it’s important: These kinds of articles keep the issue fresh in people’s minds. When they come from different sources, the message is all that more credible.
What else to know: Sean is the CEO of Zephr.xyz, a company that networks GPS devices for greater accuracy and more resilience. This is not the first time he has published an excellent opinion piece adding to and amplifying our message. Sean published three items in SpaceNews on this in 2024.
China holds the GPS advantage over the US. Here’s why, and how to solve it.
US strategic planners must confront an uncomfortable truth, writes Sean Gorman in this op-ed: A core pillar of American military and civilian power is far more vulnerable than many assume.
The recent US approval of an unprecedented $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan, including HIMARS, rockets, drones, and artillery systems, has sharply elevated tensions across the Taiwan Strait. Beijing has warned that the move risks driving the region toward “military confrontation and war,” while Washington views it as a necessary step to accelerate Taiwan’s defensive readiness. But amid the political signaling and hardware debates, a deeper and more dangerous vulnerability is receiving far too little attention.
The US remains overwhelmingly dependent on GPS for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT). In a Taiwan contingency, that dependence could undermine US deterrence, complicate intervention decisions, and degrade operational effectiveness at precisely the moment clarity and speed matter most.
If Beijing chose to escalate toward armed conflict or sustained gray zone coercion, one of its most powerful asymmetric tools would not be naval or aerial alone. It would be the electromagnetic domain.
