Image: RNT Foundation image, June 2019
What’s new: A bittersweet anniversary. Seven years ago today members of the RNT Foundation Board of Directors visited with Senators Cruz and Markey to thank them for their sponsorship of the National Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2018.
Why it’s important:
- The act (and now law) says:
a) In General.—Subject to the availability of appropriations, the Secretary of Transportation shall provide for the establishment, sustainment, and operation of a resilient, and reliable alternative timing system—
(1) to reduce critical dependencies and provide a complement to and backup for the timing component of the Global Positioning System (referred to in this section as “GPS”); and
(2) to ensure the availability of uncorrupted and non-degraded timing signals for military and civilian users in the event that GPS timing signals are corrupted, degraded, unreliable, or otherwise unavailable.
- The law has been cited by the current Deputy Secretary of Transportation, current Chairman of the FCC and others as confirming the need for action to backup GPS.
What else to know: Notice the law says “subject to the availability of appropriations…”
- No administration has requested funds from Congress.
- Congress has appropriated some funds but they have all been used for studies and trials.
- It is our understanding that every President’s budget submission to Congress since it was signed into law has requested its repeal.
- Folks have asked why the UK is so far ahead of the U.S. in resilient PNT. We have heard suggestions that:
- The U.K. is “not burdened” by having its own GNSS.
- The U.K. is physically closer to Russian jamming and spoofing. – The U.K. Defense Minister’s airplane has been jammed twice with the minister in it. Maybe if that had happed to the U.S. Secretary of Defense/War…
- “The Americans will always do the right thing… after they have tried everything else.” – Maybe we haven’t tried everything else yet… 😉
