Blog
Home »
Your Presentation/ Paper Wanted – Resilient Navigation, Japan, 28 Nov – 1 Dec 2018
Come to Japan for a global conference on Resilient Navigation - papers and presentations wanted! The quadrennial World Congress of the International Association of Institutes of Navigation is happening this year in Japan and the theme is Resilient Navigation. Both...
‘Deter Attacks on GPS, Fund Terrestrial Systems Like eLoran’ – Heritage Foundation
In a paper dated the 29th of March 2018, Washington, DC's conservative and influential Heritage Foundation discussed deterrence, the U.S., China, and space. One of the key points of the paper (highlighted on the first page) is: The United States needs to demonstrate...
Drone Video Xmitter Disrupts GPS Reception – NovAtel Case Study
Blog Editor's Note: In a recent GPS World article on it's interference detection system, NovAtel included three examples of GPS signal disruption that have been detected by its system. We enthusiastically support broad sharing of these kinds of case studies to...
Weather Station Disrupts GPS Reception – NovAtel Case Study
Blog Editor's Note: In a recent GPS World article on it's interference detection system, NovAtel included three examples of GPS signal disruption that have been detected by its system. We enthusiastically support broad sharing of these kinds...
50,000 Euro Fines for Trucks with Jammers
Blog Editor's Note: Government authorities around the world have been slow to address the problem of small GPS jammers because the negative impacts - dropped cell phone calls, temporary disruption of tracking and navigation services, slower networks - while...
S. Korea to use eLoran for Autonomous Vehicles, Drones
Blog Editor's Note: A recent article about South Korea's budding eLoran system and a presentation at the recent IALA Conference in Inchon is only available in Korean. The Google Translate version quoted from below clearly skews a couple ideas moving them from Korean...
Another Way to Find Jammers, Spoofers, Disruptions – GPS World
Blog Editor's Note: Interesting article from GPS World on NovAtel's method of locating GPS/GNSS disruptions. The article also has three great examples of use cases which we will feature, each in its own post. NovAtel's is one of several such products and services...
Russia, China Upgrading Loran/ eLoran Systems?
Western governments have generally shown little concern about GNSS vulnerabilities and their countries' critical dependence upon them. Not so for some others. Iran has announced that it has a Loran system to prevent its dependence on space. Saudi Arabia has had a...
AF Looking to RF for PNT – 19 to 21 June Event
Blog Editor's Note: This could be an interesting event. It seems as thought it is structured around signals of opportunity, re-purposing existing RF wave-forms, and discovery of new signals for PNT. These certainly seem less expensive and more resilient that putting...
eLoran in S. Korea – Status Report to IALA
Blog Editor's Note: The attached paper presented at a recent IALA meeting shows South Korea's eLoran project on schedule. While the UK eLoran system found 6 - 7 meter positioning accuracy, to date the S. Korean project has calculated 10m or less for many areas, but...
The Adjacent Band Compatibility Assessment: What it means and why it matters – GPS World
Blog Editor's Note: The author comments in the below story that this report has been "long awaited." Very true. The administration is proceeding very slowly, though hopefully deliberately, on this issue. The FCC seems to move even more slowly on issues related to...
Why We REALLY Need GPS
Blog Editor's Note: Wishing everyone a wonderful Memorial Day holiday. Keep in mind the sacrifices of the fallen and, if you are on the road, safe travels.
Y2K for GPS in 2019? – Not if you are ready!
Sure, there was a DHS announcement last month, but this is info worth repeating. Help us make sure it gets out as far and wide as possible: Get your GPS systems ready now for the rollover event in 2019! Many folks will think "Oh, gosh, this seems complicated and...
“50,000 GNSS Denial Events, 300 Jammer Families” – STRIKE3
The European Union's STRIKE3 project briefed the PNT Advisory Board last week about their on-going work to detect and identify GNSS disruptions. Through limited sampling, the project has come up with some disturbing results showing the vulnerability of GNSS signals....
‘We need better PNT!’ – Unmanned Aviation
Smart Sky Networks hammered home two points at the PNT Advisory Board last week: UAV/UAS and On Demand Mobility are on the verge of being huge social and economic enablers They can't do it with easily disrupted PNT signals The United States has been a world leader in...
‘8 Airports + 30 Days = 4,243 GPS Denial Events’ – STRIKE3
The European Union's STRIKE3 project reported at the US PNT Advisory Board meeting last week that their study of GPS/GNSS jamming in Europe and elsewhere has shown that jammers are evolving to become more sophisticated and prevalent. The results of measurements at...
‘Only at the Highest Levels of Government’
'Resilient PNT efforts suffer from the tragedy of the commons. Every government department and agency wants it, but each think it's the responsibility of another. it can only be done at the highest levels of government and that's what's happening in the UK' This was...
Defense Department Moves to Augment GPS with Alternatives – FedTech
Blog Editor's Note: 99%+ of GPS users are not in the Department of Defense. We are reminded of a comment at a recent workshop on GPS and critical infrastructure. After a presentation about DoD's extensive Assured PNT program, one participant asked "Where's the APNT...
Europe – ‘GNSS Alone Not Good Enough for Critical & Fail Safe Ops’
In March the European Union released its Radionavigation Plan calling for non-space backup systems for GNSS. Late last month the European Commission announced an effort to identify user requirements for such backup systems. In a memo dated the 26th of April Galileo...
China Drone Show Spoiled by GPS/GNSS Jamming
Blog Editor's Note: The associated video (here) compares the actual display with the way it was supposed to have played out. It is clear that the disruptions were localized, but probably came from two or more sources. The center right portion of the display is as...
“GNSS + STL + eLoran = Resilient PNT” – Orolia
Blog Editor's Note: An interesting paper and approach from Orolia. The thesis that, while clocks, inertial, and fiber all have their place in a resilient architecture, our economy has gone wireless, is an interesting one. As is the point they make about it being...
“GPS Jamming and Spoofing a Major Concern in Maritime” – Congressional Hearing
On Tuesday the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation held a hearing on Blue Technology. In his written testimony, Mr. Michael Jones, President of the Maritime Alliance, discussed GPS jamming and spoofing as a maritime...
$5M more for GPS Backup Demo – Draft 2019 NDAA
The recently released House mark for the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes an additional $5M to add to the $10M appropriated in the 2018 budget, for a GPS backup technology demonstration. The draft bill says: GPS Backup Demonstration The...
We Don’t Know What To Do If A Satellite Gets Hacked – The Outline
Blog Editor's Note: While it might be exceptionally difficult to hack GPS by invading its operating system (probably not Windows 95 as suggested in the second article below), it is incredibly easy to hack GPS civilian signals by spoofing, and to launch a successful...
UK Police Bust GPS Jammer – Watch Video
Blog Editor's Note: Jamming satnav services, like GPS, is illegal in many countries. Yet few nations have active programs to detect and arrest those violating such laws. In the United States, for example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has the authority...
GPS Jamming: Major Threat to Drones – AV Web
Blog Editor's Note: This, of course, could be said of any unmanned system, and to a lesser extent for all transportation, manned and unmanned. The US government is doing a technology demonstration of a complementary and backup system for GPS this year. Once...
Electrical Grids Concerned about GNSS Timing
Technologists from the National Institutes of Standards (NIST) report that all the operators of electrical grids they have contacted have reported some problems using GNSS timing. About 20% report that this has caused problems with operations, mostly offline analysis...
Russia Undermining World’s Confidence in GPS
Over the last 12 months Russia has been increasingly active disrupting GPS signals and undermining confidence in "America's gift to the world." These activities seem to be serving several Russian national objectives: Frustrate western military and peacekeeping...
Norway to Russia: “Please Stop Jamming Our GPS!” – Exercise as Intimidation
Blog Editor's Note: Russian forces jammed GPS in northern Norway again last month. The effects were particularly felt by aviation and telecommunications. This follows a similar week-long jamming episode in the same area in September, and jamming in the Baltic later...
Remembering a PNT Giant – Dr. Per Enge
The PNT world lost one of its greats this week. Dr. Per Enge succumbed after a brief but severe resurgence of an illness. His list of honors and official bio are widely known and easily found. We asked three people who knew him more intimately for some of their...
DoT GPS Adjacent Band Compatibility Study Released
Blog Editor's Note: The release of this study has been much anticipated. We don't know why it is only being released now, even though it is dated December 2017. It has already been referenced by the NPEF's published Gap Analysis report. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The goal of...
Russia Jamming GPS to Promote GLONASS?
Blog Editor's Note: The below news release from Russia got us thinking. For years we had heard from our maritime contacts that GPS and AIS were not reliable in Russian waters. Then last summer we heard from a merchant captain in the Black Sea. He and about 20 other...
$5 GPS Spoofer Now Available – Hackaday.com
Blog Editor's Note: An alert member pointed us to this item just posted yesterday. Hackers have their own websites where this kind of information is readily available. We are posting it here to help inform those who worry about hackers and are trying to make policy...
UK’s NSA – ‘Resilience More Important Than Defense’
Blog Editor's Note: It's incredibly important to defend against cyber attacks, but no defense is perfect. Nations need to focus on resilience, according to an official at the UK's GCHQ, Britain's equivalent of America's National Security Agency (NSA). "Absolute...
NSF Funds GPS Spoofing “How-To” Guide
Blog Editor's Note: There's lots of information "out there" to help the bad guys figure out how to mess with GPS. So occasionally we point out some of it because most of our readers are the good guys and need to be reminded, or need help reminding others, just how bad...
GPS Problem Disables 911 System – ‘Suddenly it was 1997’
Blog Editor's Note: This incident from last year is an example of how GPS and PNT are taken for granted by many users. During the SVN-23 glitch in January of 2016 most all the first responder systems in North America seem to have had fault reports, if not more...
“Beyond GNSS – UK Efforts to Combat PNT Vulnerability” at RNTF Annual Meeting
Join us on the 15th of May for the RNT Foundation Annual Meeting and Reception aboard the USS Constellation in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. - All are welcome! The evening includes: Guided tours of the USS Constellation Reception with heavy hors d'oeuvres, wine, and...
The sneaky ways China and Russia could threaten US satellites – Defense News
Blog Editor's Note: Attacking satellites directly is difficult and dangerous. Attacking and disabling the GPS constellation would be especially difficult as it would require damaging at least 7 or 8 different satellites. Such attacks would also be dangerous as it...
Expect Bad GPS: Egypt, Turkey, Korea, Philippines, Elsewhere – Flight Services Bureau
The most recent Unsafe Airspace Summary from the Flight Services Bureau cautions pilots about chronic GPS disruptions in Egypt, Turkey, North and South Korea, and the Philippines. A subsequent update identified problems in Cypress as well. The US Maritime...
China Installed Jammers on Spratly Islands – Wall Street Journal
Blog Editor's Note: China has been jamming US drones and patrols in the area for a while. Installing jamming equipment on the Spratly Islands extends the reach of their ability to disrupt systems while reinforcing their sovereignty claims. (Interesting how on the...
Russia Jamming GPS Signals in Syria to Counter US Drones – NBC News
Blog Editor's Note: Russian military doctrine is that all signals from space will be denied in any hot conflict, so their forces are fully prepared to operate without them. US military operations are highly dependent upon signals from space, such as GPS, and the...
“Expect your GPS to be Trashed”- GPS & ADS-B Problems At Manila Airport
Blog Editor's Note: We have reported several times on GPS disruptions in the Philippines. See for example Unsafe Airspace and Aviation Disruptions. Kudo's to RNTF member Guy Buesnel of Spirent for finding this ICAO report and the outstanding Linkedin post below. Guy...
Space war is coming — and the U.S. is not ready – Politico
Blog Editor's Note: The best way to prepare for something bad that might happen is to make sure when it does, it causes the least damage possible. We have the technology today to ensure that, with a minimal investment, when GPS goes away the nation can keep on going...
GPS Jamming at Ports a Problem – US Coast Guard R&D gets $500K to Examine
Blog Editor's Note: In 2014 portions of a mid-Atlantic container port were idled for seven hours by an apparent GPS jamming incident. Since then the use of jammers has continued to increase, especially by drivers of commercial vehicles that are part of fleet tracking...
New GPS Costs Up $930M Last Year – What if just 10% went to protect users?
From C4IRSNET 5 April 2018: The cost of new GPS programs jumped $930 million last year By: Mark Pomerleau The cost of two Air Force GPS programs increased a total of $930 million in the last year, according to a new report released by the Pentagon April 3. The...
Google Doodle – Father of Trusted Time, John Harrison, 325th Birthday
Blog Editor's Note: Today Google celebrated the 325th birthday of John Harrison, inventor of the first practical chronometer with a doodle. Harrison's was the first of many continuing steps to provide trusted time in support of navigation and thousands of...
Extended GPS Interference Eastern Mediterranean – MARAD
Blog Editor's Note: Kudo's to MARAD for posting this. Getting info out about GPS problems is not their job. We have had a hard time getting this kind of info to be made public. The statement they were allowed to publish, in typical governmentese, says "possible...
$10M Funds GPS Backup Tech Demo – GPS.gov
Blog Editor's Note: The last two administrations (G.W. Bush and Obama) promised Congress they would build eLoran systems to serve as a complement and backup for GPS. Bush Administration Announcement Obama Administration Announcement Despite these promises being...
Air Force: GPS Satellites Vulnerable to Attack
Blog Editor's Note: The nation relies heavily on vulnerable space assets, including GPS. The Department of Homeland Security has called GPS "a single point of failure for critical infrastructure." We hope our leaders begin to consider that the best way to protect the...
Space Launches Causing Small GPS Disruptions – Ars Technica
Blog Editor's Note: Space launches are on the upswing with over 12,000 new satellites scheduled to go into orbit in the next several years. Most launches will put multiple satellites in space, but that still leaves lots of rockets making holes in the ionosphere. We...
Blog
Satellite Spectrum Security: Jamming of PNT is child’s play – Satnews
Image: GPS Patron What's New: These issues being discussed in more and more forums. In this case as a spectrum security issue. It is also a cyber issue. An electronic warfare issue, a navigation issue, a timing issue... Why It's Important: This is everyone's...
America is at risk of high impact GPS jamming and spoofing from space – SpaceNews
Image: Shutterstock What's New: As far as we know, this is the first public discussion of the likelihood China can, and Russia will be able to, spoof GPS and Galileo from space. Why It's Important: Jamming and spoofing from space can have far greater impact and be...
An offroad paradigm for thinking about resilient PNT – Logan Scott on LinkedIn
Image: Shutterstock Sharing an insightful LinkedIn post by our Advisory Council member Logan Scott. An offroad paradigm for thinking about resilient PNT Logan Scott GNSS/GPS Expert October 22, 2024 My friend Dana Goward recently asked me what is the right way...
GNSS Jamming and Spoofing Are a Daily Occurrence – EE|Times
Image: Baltic Jamming on 19 Jan 2024, GPSJam.org What's New: More validation of "the new normal." The article has some interesting quotes from Gustavo Lopez at Septrino. Why It's Important: We hope this helps the idea that we can't over-rely on GNSS the way we have...