The Air Force seems to be on track to experiment with PNT satellites in geostationary orbit. The idea for Navigation Technology Satellite 3 (NTS-3) has been around for a while and notionally scheduled for launch in 2023. Recently the Air Force announced it would be...

Blog Editor's Note: Several reports on this in the media. For those interested in this issue, we recommend all three articles as each provides some information not available in the others. Several interesting things to note overall. A pending financial deal in the UK...

Blog Editor's Note: Solar weather is the primary reason loss of GNSS appears of the UK risk register. The risk register, in turn, was the impetus for two UK government studies on the impacts of losing GNSS for 5 days (not good at all). As we have mentioned before,...

In order to understand China's military approach to space, look to the ancient board game of Go says the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. (Brian Murphy/Defense Intelligence Agency)   Blog Editor's Note: A good article that provides some context for the...

Blog Editor's Note: A fascinating article about the newest phase in the spoofing wars. No wonder China is focusing on "comprehensive PNT" vice just relying on satellites! Smart Cities Ghost ships, crop circles, and soft gold: A GPS mystery in Shanghai A sophisticated...

Blog Editor's Note - The author of the below is the President of the RNT Foundation. China leads world with plan for ‘comprehensive’ PNT November 15, 2019  - By Dana Goward Speaking at the annual Stanford Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Symposium, a Chinese...

Blog Editor's Note: Recent press reports about the FCC preparing to act on the Ligado proposal caused us to start thinking about this again. The result was us filing this letter to the docket.   14 November 2019 Re: Ex parte presentation in IB Docket Nos. 11-109...

Graphic showing Galileo's failure. Pic: Bert Hubert. Blog Editor's Note: An interesting summary/compilation about this summer's Galileo failure. Interesting how the human factor is still so dominant in many of these kinds of mishaps. In aviation we call pilots the...

[Diana Furchtgott-Roth, DOT deputy assistant secretary for research and technology, speaks to the Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC) meeting in Miami. Photo: Dee Ann Divis] Blog Editor's Note: Another step in the process of the U.S. acquiring the backup for...

Graphic: Getty Images Blog Editor's Note: While not a lot in the below is "newsworthy" for many of our readers, it's a good compilation. It is also encouraging for all of us to see this issue being framed and presented for a general audience. An audience that, for the...

Pierre Delsaux speaks at an EU breakfast on space policy . (Photo: European Union) Blog Editor's Note: The author of the below article is the President of the RNT Foundation. “Unacceptable! Never again!”: EC Deputy on Galileo outage November 5, 2019  - By Dana Goward...

Blog Editor's Note: The recent action at ICAO's Assembly declaring GNSS disruption an urgent issue has increased focus on the issue within the aviation community.  One note about the below - The author says that the best form of protection from spoofing is with...

[Photo: Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioner Brendan Carr and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks.  Courtesy FCC.]   Blog Editor's Note: Another exceptional job of reporting by Dee Ann Divis. We have heard...

RNTF Report On the 18th we alerted our readers to the pending announcement of a European Commission procurement of  "an advanced interference detection and robustness capabilities system." That announcement was made last week. Information is available on the EU site...

Blog Editor's Note: The author is the President of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation. US Army partners with UT Austin, Texas A&M System for advanced PNT October 30, 2019  - By Dana Goward   This month, the University of Texas at Austin became a...

Blog Editor's Note: The below is a good compilation of incidents reported by many sources on this topic. We offer it as a refresher and an example of the increasing and broadening awareness of GPS/GNSS vulnerabilities and how they are regularly being exploited by...

Photo Credit: Rebecca Zia Blog Editor's Note: The author of this article is the President of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation. Parkinson questions long delay resolving Ligado issue October 22, 2019  - By Dana Goward Tells Space Advisory group spectrum...

Blog Editor's Note: We have seen a number of items in the press recently about the US Army's efforts with resilient and APNT. They have made a big deal about the first installations of MAPS. They are also the Department of Defense executive agent for development of...

The Kennedy Space Center and Cocoa Beach, already great destinations, will host three days of PNT events next month. ... 09:00 - 18:00: Kennedy Space Center Tours and Visitor Complex It's the Greatest Space Adventure on Earth! Whether your visit includes training like...

Blog Editor's Note: The author is the president of the RNT Foundation. EU contracting for GNSS interference detection network October 17, 2019  - By Dana Goward Request for proposals to be issued The Official Journal of the European Union (EU) will publish a funding...

So, you thought you had survived the once-every-twenty-years GPS rollover event just because nothing bad happened on the 6th of April. You thought you were safe for the next 157 years because the GPS date counter will be increased to 13 bits. Not. So. Fast. It seems...

Sir George Airy established a meridian at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in 1851 to serve as a common reference for astronomical observations and navigation. By 1884 two thirds of ships were using it as a reference on their charts. US President Chester A. Arthur...

Blog Editor's Note: The author is the President of the RNT Foundation UN Aviation Body: GPS/GNSS Disruption an Urgent Safety Priority October 10, 2019  Dana A. Goward Last week the triennial assembly of the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization...

Blog Editor's Note: The 1859 "Carrington Event" coronal mass ejection was so powerful it induced currents in telegraph wires strong enough to set telegraph offices on fire. A smaller event in 1921 "the NY Railway solar flare" did the same thing to a railway office in...

Image: Moon Over Miami, During 2019 ION GNSS+, D.A. Goward   The recent meeting of the Civil GPS Service Interface Committee in Miami included a number of interesting presentations. One by MITRE's Dr. Arthur Scholz working for the Homeland Security System...

Blog Editor's Note: "Politico" is a well known and respected site for information about US national politics. This is the first we became aware of their weekly newsletter focusing on space issues.  We signed up to receive it when it is published every Friday. The...

Blog Editor's Note: RNT Foundation obtained this strategy document from a Freedom of Information Act request we made earlier this year. To the best or our knowledge and as of this writing, it is not posted on any website other than ours. Links to it are in the text of...

Image: Andy Goldsmith (IMCA): "Reference system signal jamming is happening in the Middle East"   Blog Editor's Note: "DP" is "dynamic positioning" a capability that some maritime vessels have to automatically maintain a relatively precise position despite the...

Blog Editor's Note: RNT Foundation Member and Adviser Prof David Last has a list of credentials and honors in the PNT world too long to list here. Below is a recent interview he did with Coordinates Magazine discussing the recent failure Galileo and the overall need...

We were saddened to hear of the passing of our colleague and leading light of the satnav community, Ronald R. Hatch. He passed away unexpectedly on Friday several days after a medical procedure.  Ron was a member of the U.S. National PNT Advisory Board. The following...

Blog Editor's Note: Spectrum is valuable and there is a fixed supply. As long as this is true there will be fierce and unrelenting competition for it.  The ultra-wideband issue's resurgence does not bode well for those who hope "the Ligado issue" has been put to bed...

Blog Editor's Note: An interesting article with a number of new observations from Dr. Brad Parkinson and Gerhard Berz.  For example, we hadn't realized that the DME frequencies were highly desired by others, though it certainly make sense when you stop to think of it....

Blog Editor's Note: Outstanding article that recaps much of what the community has been saying while also providing great additional insights. Peter Gutierrez provides an update that, disappointingly, shows that more than two months after the most significant problem...

RNT Foundation Report Pilots, Controllers, Intl Air Transport Associations call for action, cite near-miss The passenger aircraft was making an approach to the airport serving the ski resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho in the North American Rockies. An “abundance of...

The Royal Institute of Navigation's annual International Navigation Conference is unique in both the breadth of navigation issues discussed, and the quality of the program. The program for this year's event to be held 19 -21 November in Edinburgh, Scotland, has...

Sen Ben Sasse - Getty Images   Blog Editor's Note: One might discount some claims by politicians as being a bit overblown for the purpose of making headlines. We might take this warning from Senator Sasse (R-NE) a bit more seriously. Sasse is a member of the...

GPS/GNSS is an invisible utility that supports every facet of modern life. Click on the graphic below, mouse around this airport lobby and find some of the many things that use and rely on GPS/GNSS every day. A link to this application is also available on the RNT...

Blog Editor's note: This request for quotations is what the community has been expecting for a while, and in response (finally) to a mandate in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.  In remarks yesterday at a meeting of the Civil GPS Services Interface...

Image: Senators Cruz and Markey discuss GPS backup need with RNT Foundation Board (Photo by Gary Thomas) RNTF Report In a letter dated the 10th of September, Senators Cruz and Markey questioned the Secretary of Transportation about progress meeting the requirements of...

BLOG EDITOR UPDATE: Our hat's off to the folks at the USCG Navigation Center. Shortly after we posted the below bemoaning the lack of followup information - they posted followup information!  Seems that it WAS an equipment problem. Even better, the manufacturer...

The Royal Institute of Navigation is holding a one day seminar that should be of interest to all our readers. Lots of big names in the PNT world will be presenting (see below). We highly recommend it for any and all who can possibly make it.  Here is the web link in...

Blog Editor's Note: We are VERY pleased to send this along from the University of Texas website about our friend, the good Prof. Humphreys. Among his many achievements, last year Todd led a team that used a single sensor aboard the international space station to...

Blog Editor's Note - Good "awareness" article in Ars Technica discussing offerings from Regulus. Full disclosure - Regulus is an RNTF corporate supporter. Other companies, including other RNTF supporters, also offer solutions & mitigations for jamming and...

The USCG Navigation Center continues to receive and post reports of problems with GPS reception from around the world. Our recent check of the site showed numerous reports from the eastern Mediterranean, as expected, along with a goodly number scattered around the...

Blog Editor's Note: This article complements the one we posted yesterday and provides some additional information.  One correction to the below - we understand that there will be multiple awards under the RFP and that each will be from $700,000 to $2M.  DOT Ready to...

Blog Editor's Note: The author of the below article is the President of the RNT Foundation. US DOT moves aggressively on GPS backup, RFP this month September 4, 2019  - By Dana Goward The last two U.S. presidential administrations failed to follow through on promises...

Image: Wikimedia Commons Strange GPS in Hong Kong – China Government Responsible? RNTF Original Report, 4 Sept 2019   Reception of satnav signals in major metropolitan areas is often problematic. Tall buildings can block the view of the sky or reflect GNSS...

Visitors look at a model of the BeiDou Global Navigation Satellite System in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province. File photo: Visual China Group   Blog Editor's Note: We reported on this cooperation last month and assessed the concerns for GPS and America. It...

Thanks to RNTF member John Hartzell for sending this along, and to Jeff Bacon for great naval humor since 1986. Best wishes for a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

This FAA graphic shows locations and altitudes where GPS interference testing scheduled for Aug. 30 and Sept. 5 could affect GPS-based aircraft navigation and ADS-B operation.   Blog Editor's Note: A very powerful graphic above showing how a jammer at sea level...