Blog Editor's Note: For years users have wanted to be able to include "resilience" as a requirement for PNT receivers in their purchase orders.  But it has been an elusive goal.  This is an important step in the right direction. An excellent development. Kudos to the...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Another example of recent media highlighting that space is a dangerous place.  Measures like this are undoubtedly necessary. If for no other reason than to stay on a par, or hopefully slightly ahead of, the Chinese and Russians....

Image: U.S. DOT Blog Editor's Note:  This is a long piece so we won't add much to it with a long commentary. Only to say that since our inception we have endorsed the architecture/ system of systems approach as envisioned in the US govt's still-in-use 2008 National...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: The author is RNTF President, Dana A. Goward     US Defense Department looking for GNSS disruption detection and analysis August 13, 2021  - By Dana Goward Est. reading time: 1:30 0 Comments The U.S. Department of...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Interesting article on  some space-based services with the potential to augment or offer an alternative to GPS/ GNSS.  As we have said before, space-based systems offer things you can't get from terrestrial and need to be part...

Blog Editor's Note: An excellent article by RNTF member Diana Furchtgott-Roth. Diana is a professor at GWU and previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Diana is right on target. But we need...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: The author is President of the RNT Foundation. This article was written a month or so ago when the newsletter was in preparation. Since then the infrastructure bill has been formulated in the Senate without any mention, so far,...

Blog Editor's Note: We are seeing more and more about ASATs in the press these days. "Nesting doll" satellites with weapons inside, "kamikazee" satellites to crash into others - both courtesy of Moscow. Satellites with robo-arms that can grab other satellites and have...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: We are including two reports of the same event in this post. Several things of note. GPS is included in this discussion of cyber vulnerabilities, as is the case more and more often. That is a great development because...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Granted this article is in an outlet about space. So it talks about GPS and GNSS. The larger issue, though, is that "Modern civilization would be lost without PNT."  But, yes, we over-rely on GPS so much it is almost the same...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: This is an important message we have heard before that bears repeating. Space assets are important, none more so that GPS. That means GPS is well protected. Also that it is the biggest challenge, and often the most attractive...

Blog Editor's Note: An excellent summary of where America has been with PNT resilience and policy and where it needs to go. Interesting to note that the false rationale "GPS is expensive so we need to economize and have fewer other PNT sources" seems to have persisted...

Image: NASA Blog Editor's Note: Interesting assertion by two authors who should know what they are talking about.  Conventional wisdom has been that GPS is a constellation and anti-satellite satellites (ASATs) can only attack one other satellite. So very hard to...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: More outstanding work by Bjorn Bergman from SkyTruth uncovering massive location deception operations. In this instance, it seems as though there are no RF transmissions involved. In addition to the Wired article below, check...

Image: NASA/JPL Caltech Blog Editor's Note: It is interesting how this headline can be seen as  pertaining to different issues by so many folks with very different interests and concerns.  Those worried about autonomy and intelligent transporation systems likely think...

Image: Business Wire Blog Editor's Note: Another example of timing and navigation interests joining forces. Full disclosure - UrsaNav and Oscilloquartz, an ADVA brand, are both corporate members of the RNT Foundation.   UrsaNav trials eLoran as vital GNSS backup...

Image Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: This article has a number of interesting observations even though it conflates and confuses satnav and satcomms. The comments by the former head of the British Navy (First Sea Lord), who was also the nation's first minister for...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Another great contribution to the public discussion by RNTF member, GWU professor, and former Dep Asst Secretary at DOT, DIana Furchtgott-Roth.  This long-running issue arises from fundamental challenges with the evolution of...

Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note: The FCC rulemaking in favor of Ligado Networks in April 2020 stipulated that the company must compensate all federal GPS users for harm done to their systems and services. Last month, Senator Inhofe, working with a bi-partisan...

Blog Editor's Note:  Our initial response to this article was "Duh!"  Aside from stating the obvious, it is a short piece that, initially, doesn't seem to add much to the community discussion. But it does point out that the problem "keeps getting worse."  And why...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: And those trucks are going to need rock-solid PNT.  Imagine sharing the road with automated semis that don't have it. Great article by RNTF member Diana Furchtgott-Roth.   Trucks Are Winning Automation Race Diana...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: We thought we would offer this article as a follow-on to yesterday's post about GNSS as an instrument of national power. China is particularly good at using Bei Dou for soft power. Also note how they have used Bei Dou as to...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: This article is about GLONASS but could be easily about GPS, Bei Dou, or even Galileo. Certainly they are instruments of soft power (economic, political, etc,), And they have the potential for espionage and other national...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: OK, the title of this post is not an exact quote from NTIA. But it does capture the important ideas of this new paper from the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA). For those of you unfamiliar with how...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: "Adversarial Interoperability (AKA Competitive Compatibility/comcom), the practice of modifying an existing technology against the wishes (or without permission) of its maker." We were certainly familiar with the practice, but...

https://youtu.be/n69se2UCy_k   Yes, there are folks who know what time it is. And, yes, there are lots of folks who care! In fact, just about everyone cares, though most most folks don't realize it. Precise time underpins virtually every technology from...

Image: NOAA Blog Editor's Note: Interesting article.  Some thoughts about the RAND study mentioned, it said: Its not worth the cost to build another GPS-like system as a backup. We agree that duplicating GPS is not needed. (Note, China disagrees and has built GPS-like...

Image: Roke Manor Blog Editor's Note: We remember about 10 years ago when smart GNSS folks said this likely possible but not practical and wouldn't result in anything worth using. A number also said spoofing was theoretically possible but would never be a practical...

Image: Draper Blog Editor's Note: The need for this tool and others like it was highlighted in the DOD PNT Strategy, and in the recently released GAO report on DOD Navigation Capabilities. It will certainly provide a good first cut for evaluating technologies....

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note:  "Yeah, verily" to the author's point that anyone who talks about replacing GNSS is blowing smoke (and probably selling something). Unfortunately when we talk about ADDITIONAL or ALTERNATE sources of PNT, folks often wrongly...

Image US Navy Arleigh Burke Class Guided Missile Destroyer: Shutterstock Last week a UK Royal Navy destroyer and Dutch Royal Navy ship safely moored in Odessa, Ukraine, were spoofed to locations off-shore of a Russian naval base on Crimea. This week it was a US Navy...

Image: Office of Sen. Inhofe Blog Editor's Note: Since this was written, 105 companies and organizations sent a letter of support to the bill's sponsors.  Read it here. The author of the article is President of the RNT Foundation.   Sen. Inhofe introduces bill to...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Interesting article about the UK's capabilities. Also timely since we just did a webinar last week, in partnership with Hoptroff, on timing in the UK with Leon Lobo of the National Physical Laboratory. Look for the recording of...

Image: Senion Blog Editor's Note: With 5G we will likely continue seeing closer alliances and mergers of telecom and PNT. This is likely one of many to come. As another example we note that the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee urged President...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: The author is president of the RNT Foundation. RAND: Federal investment in timing network for GPS backup likely worthwhile June 22, 2021  - By Dana Goward Study’s emphasis, timing of release, work against that, some say Image:...

Image: USNI Blog Editor's Note: This is the first time we have heard of the Russians (1) targeting individual ships and (2) going to the trouble of spoofing them along a track to fake a voyage from one place to another. Clearly tweaking NATO's nose and reinforcing the...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note:  Great article with some interesting background.  And more widely applicable. Just remove "connected car" from the title and substitute, well... just about anything, and it should still work.  "President Biden, we urge you to...

Image: Shutterstock A poll of participants at yesterday's RNTF/ ION Webinar "GAO Report: Defense Navigation Capabilities" showed attendees overwhelmingly favoring better mechanisms for both coordinating alternative PNT projects within the department and its interface...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: We have talked a lot in recent posts about the PNT gap between the U.S.A. and our adversaries China, Russia, and Iran. It is a gap that, as Beebe says in "The Russia Trap" (could also be titled "the China Trap") creates...

Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note: Up front caveat - the editor has deep Coast Guard experience and more that a passing familiarity with eLoran. In fact, he probably still is on the "bad list" of a major telecommunications company because he was not able to...

Webinar - GNSS Timing Threats and Fallback Options - VIEW RECORDING Webinar held 23 June 20221, 17:00 London, 12:00 New York GNSS-based timing is ubiquitous and free, but at the same time exceptionally vulnerable to interference. The United Kingdom is in the first...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note:  We were interested to find the discussion of the importance of resilience and PNT in George Beebe's book "The Russia Trap."   Beebe talks about "War by Other Means" and how simmering tensions can cause seemingly innocuous...

Image: Shutterstock   Blog Editor's Note: The author is RNT Foundation President Dana A. Goward.   $17M proposed for DOT resilient PNT initiatives June 4, 2021  - By Dana Goward Office and Management and Budget (OMB) seeks to extend Trump policies and repeal...

The General Accountability Office (GAO) released a somewhat scathing report about Department of Defense navigation programs this month. Among their findings and inferences were: Navigation requirements for projects and systems are often overstated with managers just...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Notes: This article hits so many of the strategic concerns around US  over-reliance on GPS.  And it is from a source in Japan, a country probably even more worried about China than the U.S., if that is possible. The article sub-head...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: This is a very interesting and compelling piece. Very timely also considering Galileo's avoidance maneuver in March. Also noteworthy is that the author appropriately defines risk as threat x vulnerability x consequence. So while...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: The author is president of the RNT Foundation.   Telecom groups press president, Congress for GPS alternatives May 25, 2021  - By Dana Goward America urgently needs alternatives to GPS and the government must fund efforts...

Image: YouTube Blog Editor's Note: If you are interested in PNT and don't follow Logan Scott on LInkedin, you are missing a bet. Here is one of his typically thoughtful posts discussing some of the larger PNT resilience and policy issues.   Resilient PNT for...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: Another great piece by RNT Foundation member, Diana Furchtgott-Roth. She makes the point that in its decision to approve Ligado's application, the FCC required the company to reimburse the U.S. government for any harm done to...

Image: Artist rendering of Blackjack PNT satellites. Credit: Northrop Grumman Blog Editor's Notes: Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites will undoubtedly become a valued layer in a system-of-systems approach to resilient PNT (see and download our architecture poster here)....