The US Coast Guard has announced termination of the nation's remaining Differential GPS (DGPS) transmissions beginning in September of this year. The first phase of DGPS decommissioning was announced in 2016. In response, a group of congressmen wrote to the Deputy...

Blog Editor's Note: We understand from developers that autonomous cars will be able to use wheel counters, hyper-fine maps, Lidar, cameras, and other sensors to find there way when GPS/GNSS is not available. Space disruptions are still likely to impact them, though,...

Blog Editor's Note: On Friday, the US Government posted a report entitled "Assessment to Identify Gaps in Testing of Adjacent Band Interference to the Global Positioning System (GPS) L1 Frequency Band." The report examined five different sets of tests that have been...

The European Commission published the European Radio Navigation plan (ERNP) last week. Among other things, the plan calls for non-space backup systems - something we heartily endorse. From the plan's conclusion: "There are, however, some challenges that will need to...

"In the few weeks since the review of satellite determined position and time was released, the government has and continues to act. Some would say unusually fast, but this shows how important this issue and the challenges it raises, are being taken." Andy Proctor,...

Blog Editor's Note: A good overview article, especially about what is happening in Britain. GPS: Why our reliance on the Cold War satellite technology is an accident waiting to happen The Telegraph  James Titcomb  11 MARCH 2018 • 7:04 PM Last June, more than 20 ships...

Nation-states attacking financial institutions and power grids, and organized criminals stealing high value assets were deemed among the most likely spoofing scenarios in a recent presentation by Fugro. Discussing "the world of spoofing," as part of a presentation to...

In a recent presentation, Septentrio provided an excellent overview of GNSS jamming and spoofing issues. Of particular interest to us was their discussion of "budget spoofing." It was a clear explanation of how spoofing GNSS has dropped in price and complexity to...

Blog Editor's Note: There are really two areas of concern with Ligado's proposal pending before the FCC. The first is the technical analysis. Ligado claims that their proposal will not significantly impact GPS services. Others say it will - a lot.  We expect to see...

Blog Editor's Note: We have seen an increasing number of reports of drivers for taxi and ride-sharing services spoofing GPS/GNSS in order to increase the amount of work they get.  See this item about Grab drivers, for example. There have even been reports from Russia...

Novatel provided an excellent presentation that highlighted the attributes of its Interference Tool Kit (ITK) at the Dutch Institute for Navigation workshop on the 31st of January. One of their observations was that "interference will always be a problem for GNSS...

Blog Editor's Note: An interesting overview article by Wired. It briefly discusses Satelles, which could be a good complement for GPS (though perhaps not a backup) and DARPA's STOIC efforts. We have always had mixed feelings about STOIC and other "signals of...

The Dutch Aerospace Center (NLR) office in Amsterdam detects numerous GNSS jammers passing by every day. On the 31st of January the Dutch Institute for Navigation hosted a workshop on GNSS interference. NLR provided an excellent overview presentation describing the...

Blog Editor's Note: The three authors of this opinion piece are among the most qualified in the world to opine on this issue. Similar recommendations to these were made by the President's National PNT Advisory Board in 2017. FCC must act to avoid a grave threat to GPS...

  Vice President Pence chaired the second meeting of the National Space Council last week at the Kennedy Space Center. During the meeting the Hon. Kirstjen Nielson, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, asked a panel what could be done to incentivize...

Blog Editor's Note: This is the most recent of several requests for information (RFIs) that the federal government has issued on this topic in the last few years. While the title says "Alternative Technologies" the text states the goal as "complementary and backup...

Blog Editor's Note: We don't normally give space here to Russian propaganda, but this piece, re-posted by GPS Daily from Sputnik News, is noteworthy for several reasons. First, the Russians have spent a good part of the last 12 months demonstrating how they can defeat...

Blog Editor's Note: Since we first reported on this, we have come to learn that the GPS backup issue in the UK is being lead by the Cabinet Office - the UK's equivalent of the White House. The GPS backup effort in the US is at the agency level. Recommendations need to...

Blog Editor's Note: A good overview article by Sean McCrystal at Orolia about the need for resilient PNT. Orolia has been positioning itself as a resilient PNT provider for several years. We understand that some of it's Spectracom brand products have the ability to...

Blog Editor's Note: - "Focus on what is most important" is the theme of an excellent commentary by Lt Gen Shea, USMC (ret) in this month's "Signals" magazine.  The United States has identified 16 critical infrastructure sectors. An attack on any could inflict a lot of...

Blog Editor's Note: Another outstanding article by Mike Jones. Several points he makes are worth restating: One disadvantage of SOOP is that it can require complex hardware to do it well. You cannot afford to rely on signals that you don’t control. SOOP is also highly...

The European Union's STRIKE3 project found over 160,000 GNSS interference events during the most recent 18 month period for which a report is available. These events were detected by sampling done in 14 different countries. Early in the project when just sampling in...

Blog Editor's Note: Not all problems with space services are best solved in space. Yet it seems that the way our budgets and policy making are stove-piped, that is the only way we are addressing problems. See yesterday's post regarding the Secretary of the Air Force;s...

Last month Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told the Washington Examiner “We built a glass house before the invention of stones” by way of explaining the vulnerability of space systems and the services they provide. Of all our space-based services, GPS signals are...

Blog Editor's Note: We just discovered this recent paper available for free through the Royal Institute of Navigation's "The Journal of Navigation." It makes a number of good points about policy, as well as being a good technical review. From the paper's conclusion: ...

Blog Editor's Note: A recent UK government report sounds the alarm for every nation about dependence on GNSS. As an example of one of dozens of vulnerabilities, the report describes how jammers are used along with a suite of other wireless tools to easily steal...

At the Munich Satellite Summit last year a rep from the European Union announced that they had detected more than 150,000 unique electronic signatures of GNSS jamming devices on the continent. Unlike the United States and other areas of the world which undoubtedly...

Blog Editor's Note: This article speaks to general principles as well as the specifics of Ligado's proposal to broadcast adjacent to GPS frequencies.  We also provide a link to the larger paper upon which the article is based at the end of the post. Aerospace Corp....

Yesterday we posted about a newly released report from the UK government on critical infrastructure and its dependence on satellite navigation systems. Today an official UK policy letter was made public that says; "The UK Government is therefore supportive of any...

Blog Editor's Note: The below Reuters article highlights an interesting confluence of events. Just last week the UK Minister for Defence expressed concern about Russia attacking the British infrastructure and economy. This week the UK government issued a report on...

Blog Editor's Note: Military exercises are a necessity, including those that jam GPS. This year's Red Flag exercise starts today and ends on February 16th. GPS jamming will be part of the exercise, but will undoubtedly not occur the entire period. That said, any...

Blog Editor's Note: Robert Poole is director of transportation policy and Searle Freedom Trust Transportation Fellow at Reason Foundation. Poole, an MIT-trained engineer, has advised the Ronald Reagan, the George H.W. Bush, the Clinton, and the George W. Bush...

The RNT Foundation and ATIS are co-sponsoring a workshop to identify what users need and want when it comes to resilient GPS/GNSS timing receivers in the telecommunications, electrical distribution, and financial services industry. According to the event's organizer...

Speaking to a group at the New York Stock Exchange, a Department of Homeland Security official warned about the danger of GPS disruptions.  David Wulf, Acting Deputy Asst Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, said "Threats to GPS are real and relevant." Wulf said...

Blog Editor's Notes: Almost every official advocating for resilient space systems we have heard or read about is only looking for solutions that can happen in space. Complementing space systems with terrestrial systems that provide similar services deters enemy action...

Blog Editor's Note: We are always interested in studies that examine GPS vulnerability and the problems that come along with it. Academic studies are usually pretty easy to access. Sometimes government studies are a bit harder to get as officials can classify...

Blog Editor's Notes:   Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) are allocated frequencies adjacent to those for GPS/GNSS. Despite this proximity, there have been few, if any, documented GPS service disruptions from MSS. Some in the community believe this is because, until now,...

Blog Editor's Note: Dr. Parkinson certainly points out a grave threat. We are not sure about his speculation that this is "...possibly the gravest current threat..." to the PNT community. It seems to us that, even if the FCC were to allow the proposed operations,...

Blog Editor’s Notes: The following web post and TV broadcast sounds the alarm about our over-dependence on GPS and the potential consequences of disruptions. Regular readers of this blog will see that, unfortunately, while the concerns expressed are well founded, some...

Blog Editor's Note: Helicopter Association International (HAI) recently posted an advisory for its members about GPS interference. Interestingly, the discussion is limited to government testing rather than the broader threat. We understand that government testing is a...

In an undated, recently uncovered report, the US Department of Homeland Security warns readers that: "Almost every aspect of American life today relies on some aspect of positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) data provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS) and...

Blog Editor's Note: Reports from around the world show many security services using GPS jamming as a part of VIP protection efforts. As far as we know, the Russians are the only ones to spoof signals.  Moscow taxi users confusion amid GPS meddling claims By BBC...

Editor's Notes: Two new/developing technologies are described in the article. Both are important steps forward in resilient PNT.  The description of the Echo Ridge system on their website says that it uses existing wireless signals for time in GPS denied environments....

Editor's Note: Microsemi acquired Symmetricom in 2013 and is now a leading provider of highly precise time keeping technologies and solutions. We were very pleased to see this press release and their endorsement. Microsemi Supports Passage of National Resilience and...

Blog Editor's Note: Many in the new drone countermeasures industry include GPS jamming in their equipment. Here are a few examples sent to us by an alert member:  AntiDrone - Jams GPS and other signals. Company based in Denmark Dedrone - Jams or spoofs GPS &...

Periodically RNTF posts information drawn from GPS disruption reports sent to the US government and others over the last several years. We endeavor to include enough information to make them helpful to our readers while preserving the anonymity of the reporting...

After the Air Force made a minor software update to the Global Position System on the 21st of September 2017, it received reports that “several thousand receivers were impacted.” In a 7 December memo to GPS users and equipment manufacturers the Air Force said “Due to...

A trial this month in the United Kingdom resulted in the conviction of nine men for a wide variety of crimes including drug and weapons smuggling, money laundering, abduction, and torture. As part of their operations, the gang used sophisticated electronic...

Blog Editor's Note: This Los Angles Times edited interview with the Secretary of the Air Force, the Hon Heather Wilson, doesn't spend a lot of time on GPS issues, despite the article's headline. But it does confirm that folks at the highest levels of government know...

Blog Editor's Note: The below joint statement formalizes (between the US and China) the principle that global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) should be technologically compatible. This enables manufacturers to easily incorporate signals from multiple national...