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Ligado-Related Lawsuit Recommences Jan. 2 – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: Some may assert that this law suit does not bear upon the technical arguments Ligado and its predecessor, Lightsquared, made before the FCC. It does directly impact those companies' credibility and standing, though. If it is shown that data was...

Messing with the Ionosphere – New method for jamming GPS/GNSS?
Blog Editor's Note: Our first question about the below article, naturally, was "What is the impact on GNSS signals and services?" It might be due to the holidays, but most of the folks we have asked about this have either not responded or said "don't know." One...

US Legal System Way Behind GPS & Counter Technology
A passenger rolls away a sleeping aid as she sits with her luggage at London Gatwick Airport on Friday as flights started to resume following the closing of the airfield due to a drone incursion. (BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)GETTY Blog Editor's Note: While...

Telecom Standards Group Asks Govt. to Act on GPS Vulnerability – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: The below article was written by RNTF President Dana A. Goward. Telecom Standards Group Asks Govt. to Act on GPS Vulnerability December 18, 2018 By Inside GNSS The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Standards (ATIS) sent a letter to...

UK Presentation on eLoran – Nov 2018
Blog Editor's Note - This presentation was provided at the IAIN World Congress in Japan last month. It has a good overview of the differences between eLoran and the older Loran-C, and hints at what the new technology is capable of. While eLoran has an effective range...

DHS Developing Performance Standards for GPS Receivers Used in Critical Infrastructure – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: The below item was authored by RNTF President Dana A. Goward DHS Developing Performance Standards for GPS Receivers Used in Critical Infrastructure December 13, 2018 By Inside GNSS During a discussion of PNT issues at a workshop on Dec. 11, a...

2018: A year of serious GPS disruption – Guy Buesnel
Blog Editor's Note: RNTF member Guy Buesnel (Spirent) is an expert on GPS disruption and resilience. He is a sought after speaker who travels the world and recently gave a dynamite presentation to the US National PNT Advisory Board. Here is a recent item he posted on...

Industry, European Efforts Featured at PNT Advisory Board Meeting – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: The semiannual in-person meeting of the US National Spaced-based PNT Advisory Board was held last week in Redondo Beach, CA. Its agenda with links to all presentations received is available on line. Once approved, the minutes of the meeting will be...

Sen Cruz & Markey, Cong. Garamendi’s Statements on National Timing Resilience & Security Act Signing
Blog Editor's Note: It's ALWAYS good to see bipartisan cooperation on important issues in Congress. We are, of course, especially glad to see the cooperation and leadership from both parties on this issue. Our thanks to Senators Cruz and Markey in the Senate, and...

President signs National GPS Timing Resilience and Security Act – GPS World
Editor's Note: We occasionally publish news important to our readers in industry journals in order to reach an even larger audience. This item appeared in GPS World today. President signs National Timing Security and Resilience Act December 5, 2018 - By Dana...

Airliner – “GPS signal briefly went away… then all hell broke loose…”
In many areas of life it's difficult to tell whether or not your GPS/GNSS signal is being deliberately disrupted or something else is going wrong. It is often much easier in aviation and maritime operations. A presentation by Spirent's Guy Buesnel and Steve Hickling...

DHS S&T Working on GPS Vulnerability
Blog Editor's Note: We were very encouraged to see the announcement of this effort by the DHS Science and Technology Directorate. We are sure that it will contribute to the PNT community's overall knowledge base. Yet there is a lot of science and technology available...

DOT Ignoring GPS Vulnerabilities — Again “GPS World”
DOT Ignoring GPS Vulnerabilities — Again November 30, 2018 - By Dana Goward The U.S. Department of Transportation’s most recent document preparing for the future of self-driving cars almost entirely ignores positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) needs, according to...

National Timing Security and Resilience Act sent to President
On the 14th of November the Senate passed the Frank LoBiondo US Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018. Included in that bill was the National Timing Security and Resilience Act of 2018. The bill was initially proposed last year in the House by Congressmen John...

Resilient Navigation for a Dangerous World – IAIN World Congress Presentation
The theme of the triennial World Congress of the International Association of Institutes of Navigation (IAIN) in Chiba, Japan this year is "Science, Technology, and Practice to Resilient Navigation." RNT Foundation President Dana A. Goward's keynote address "Resilient...

S&P Global Platts – Merchant shipping lacks safety net as GPS disruptions intensify
Blog Editor's Note: This two-part report by Katherine Dunn has reached many in business who have not been aware of such problems heretofore (see some of the comments on her article on line). It is a good reminder that, while such things may seem matter of course to...

Senate Passes National Timing Security and Resilience Act of 2018
Blog Editor's Note: This bill, which passed the Senate on the 14th of November, requires the Secretary of Transportation to establish a terrestrial national timing signal to provide a backup for GPS timing. It originated in the House of Representatives several years...

GPS disrupted for maritime in Mediterranean, Red Sea – GPS World
Blog Editor's Note: Maritime GPS disruptions have been reported elsewhere, but seem to be particularly common in this part of the world. Electronic navigation signals from the Saudi Arabian Loran-C system and the Russian Chayka/Loran-C system are available for use...

Why Russia Jams GPS
Blog Editor's Note: Russia has been jamming and spoofing GPS repeatedly and over broad areas since at least 2016. In the below "Inside GNSS" article about their most recent jamming events, RNTF President Dana A. Goward is quoted about the reasons: "Russia has very...

GPS Jamming/Spoofing at Air Transport IT Summit
Blog Editor's Note: This presentation at the SITA (Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques) conference caught our attention. Speaking with the author we learned that SITA tracks a wide range of cyber issues with aviation on a weekly basis. We would...

Aviation GPS Signal Jamming Northern Finland, Norway – Again
US Marine Corps pilots fly a MV-22B Osprey during Exercise Trident Juncture near northern Norway, November 6, 2018. US Marine Corps/Lance Cpl. Cody J. Ohira Blog Editor's Note: The last few reports of this have been associated with Russian military exercises....

“GPS Risk High on DHS Work List” – Secretary Nielsen
Blog Editor's Note: We were very happy to see this headline. Apparently the Secretary made these remarks at the SINET conference in Washington, DC this week. We have already heard some comments that hearing from the Secretary on this is good, but that little seems to...

“Spoofing GPS – Now You See It, Now You Don’t!” Assn of Old Crows
RNT Foundation President Dana A. Goward, assisted by an analyst from the non-profit analytics firm C4ADS, conducted a webinar on the 9th of November for the Association of Old Crows (AOC), an electronic warfare group. Video of the entire webinar, including a fairly...

Uber drivers in Lagos are using a fake GPS app to inflate rider fares – Quartz Africa
Blog Editor's Note: The introduction of Pokemon Go in July 2016 introduced the idea of location spoofing to the consumer market and provided a training ground for people to practice it. While most of this kind of spoofing is done by a phone app, we also saw an...

Experts Warn GPS Vulnerable to Time-Tampering Terrorism – Video CBS News, San Francisco
Blog Editor's Note: This piece from KPIX, the CBS affiliate in San Francisco, is a good popular summary of the challenges faced by America and other nations without a terrestrial backup and augmentation system. While not everything that uses GPS fails as soon as the...

GPS Signal Jamming Destroys China Drone Show – Again
Photo Peter Wong Blog Editor's Note: In May a drone show in Xi'an, China was disrupted by GPS jamming. About one third of the 1,300+ drones were affected and unable to keep their positions in the display formation. In the Hong Kong show reported on below, only 100...

Russia Claims US Spoofed Drones to Attack Base
Blog Editor's Note: When evaluating claims like this, we like to use the "NCIS Rule" - ask if the accused had the means, motive, and opportunity. The US military certainly has the means to spoof GPS, GLONASS and every other satnav system that drones might use. In an...

FCC Sets Vote on Galileo Approval for November Meeting – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Notes: FCC rules require the licensing of non-federal receive-only equipment that operates with foreign satellite systems, including navigation systems. They also state that a waiver may be granted for non-US satnav signals, if the provider so requests....

Free Webinar “Spoofing GPS – Now you see it, now you don’t!” – Assn of Old Crows
Spoofing GPS – Now you see it, now you don’t! Thursday, November 8, 2018 14:00 until 15:00 EST ABOUT Russian EW ops have “relocated” over 600 vessels from their coastal waters to airports. Gamers have convinced Pokémon Go that they are thousands of miles away in...

GPS Disruptions Spread South from Russia to Saudi Arabia
Two recent reports to the US Coast Guard document persistent GPS disruptions within seven or eight nautical miles of the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah. These follow well documented problems in the Black Sea, around Cyprus, off-shore of Syria, and in the vicinity of...

GPS Hackers Could Send Weapons to Wrong Target – GAO Report
Blog Editor's Note: This is a good reminder of the importance of designing in cyber security. Also the vulnerability of GNSS signals, and that no one is immune to disruptions. . . October 18, 2018 By Inside GNSS . A recent General Accountability Office (GAO)...

GPS Backup like eLoran Better for Aviation – Air Traffic Mngmt Magazine
Blog Editor's Note: Bob Poole is a regular contributor to the respected industry journal "Air Traffic Management." He has often observed that a navigation and timing system that serves ALL modes of transportation would be much less expensive for the United States, and...

Recurring GPS Disruptions Near Tacoma, WA & Plymouth, UK
Reports of recurring GPS reception problems near Tacoma, WA in the US and the port of Plymouth in the UK have been received by the US Coast Guard Navigation Center, the agency that collates such reports from the public. See reports for 9/27/2018 and 10/2/2018. The...

Space Debris – A Threat to GNSS?
Blog Editor's Note: NASA is rightly concerned about the future of space and keeping it usable. The immediate problem and the focus of much recent attention has been Low Earth Orbit (LEO). GNSS fly about ten thousand miles above LEO in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), so it...

“GPS Reliance is Cyber Threat to Maritime Commerce” – US Coast Guard Strategy
Blog Editor's Note: The US Coast Guard recently published its "Maritime Commerce Strategic Outlook." As the service looks forward, it recognizes maritime's dependence upon GPS for a wide range of things far beyond simple navigation. "MTS" is "Marine Transportation...

GPS Problem Reporting site reveals global scale of GPS interference – Guy Buesnel
Blog Editor's Note: Guy Buesnel is an RNTF member who is an expert in GNSS disruption. We strongly commend and recommend his work and that you follow him on Linkedin. Guy has graciously allowed us to re-post his work on our site. Published on October 8, 2018 ...

Selective Availability, IoT, Suez Canal Visit, Featured at Arab Institute of Navigation Conference – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: It was a privilege to participate in this event and meet with the attendees. A fascinating mix of experience and expertise from the US, Europe and Middle East. Selective Availability, IoT, Suez Canal Visit, Featured at Arab Institute of Navigation...

“Protecting GNSS and Users – The Ideal APNT” Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: There seems to be a lot of talk these days about systems to complement and backup GNSS. We think that establishing a good set of criteria that focus on protecting a nation and its citizens by helping establish a rock-solid PNT architecture is a...

“PNT: A Cyber Worry for Intelligent Transport Systems” – French Space Agency Conference (Inside GNSS)
Blog Editor's Note: PNT is a worry for all navigation systems and navigators, especially for systems like drones and interconnected vehicles. This issue has not had a lot of public visibility in this industry. This may be partly due to an expectation that government...

Specter of Selective Availability Still Lingers – Report from Cairo
At the Arab Institute of Navigation Conference, Cairo, Egypt Several themes have emerged from among the many and varied technical and policy presentations at this annual conference. First and foremost, of course, is that GNSS is a wonderful utility that provides the...

DHS Taking a Risk-Based Look at PNT Resilience – Will It Matter?
Blog Editor's Note: We are always glad to see government officials engage with an important issue. At the same time, 2018 marks the 14th year the US government has failed to act on its own mandates to protect and augment GPS signals. Studies and analysis do little to...

Security and SatNav Experts Agree: GPS Is a Cybersecurity Issue – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: An excellent article that reflects an important shift in the way people are thinking about this problem. We have recently been talking to very senior officials at the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the White House. All...

GNSS Spoofing and Aviation: An Evolving Relationship – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: Authentication is a real and important issue, whether its something we hear on the news or PNT information. In a world where purported data is ubiquitous, how do we know what is real. The United States Air Force vouches for the quality of the...

GPS Tracker Shows Child 90 Miles From School
We depend upon GPS signals for so many important things, it's often difficult to think of them all. We were reminded of just how important some of these uses are when we read this problem report on the US Coast Guard's website: "My son wears a GPS watch due to the...

A Global Standard for GNSS Receiver Performance Assessment – Inside GNSS
Blog Editor's Note: The below article from Inside GNSS discusses an issue that many are trying to get their heads around. Europe has started to address it with their Radio Equipment Directive and the STRIKE3 project. This is going to be an issue to follow closely as...

“GPS Highly Vulnerable” says Paul Hobby – Houston Chronicle
Blog Editor's Note: GPS disruptions have brought down networks, disabled end use devices, and provided bad data to users which has been used and stored. Yet few in the cybersecurity field see it as something they are responsible for worrying about. Good to see this...

eLoran Standards Published – SAE
Blog Editor's Note: Standards for Loran-C were effectively set by the US Coast Guard. This enabled receivers world-wide to use signals whether they came from Russia, China, Europe or the USA. SAE has assumed this role for eLoran. With South Korea implementing its...

How to Defend Against GPS Spoofing Attacks – Wall Street Journal
Blog Editor's Note: Spoofing seems to have become the concern of the moment, almost eclipsing jamming/denial of service in the public consciousness. Certainly the idea of hazardously misleading information is more disturbing than no information at all. Interestingly,...

GPS Problem Reports Now Available to Public – US Coast Guard
Blog Editor's Note: BZ (Well Done!) to the US Coast Guard for posting GPS problem reports on the internet for all to see and learn from. Reports from 2018 are available now (we counted 43), new ones will be added, as will reports from previous years. Members of the...

“The Kremlin Eats GPS for Breakfast” – Moscow Times
Blog Editor's Note: We just ran across this article from 2016. While it is a couple years old, it has some tidbits we had not seen before. For example that the Russian government is spoofing both GPS and GLONASS in Moscow. Also confirmation that this is related to...