Image: GPSJam.org What's New: Recent tweet from John Wiseman about a disruption incident at the Panama Canal last August. Why It's Important: We could report nearly every day about GPS interference of some kind. Why go back to August and look at this one? It lasted...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: A relatively recent paper from the International Telecommunications Union reinforcing the essentiality of time and synchronization. Why It's Important:  Time and sync are fundamental to almost every technology. Most tech uses GPS as its...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: Another way to get location (but not time or sync). Why It's Important: New methods like this fill niche requirements. This one seems to address particularly difficult environments. What to Know:  There are many technologies and ways to...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: India establishing a regional navigation satellite system that will cooperate with, but operate independently of, GPS and other GNSS.  Why It's Important: This is another instance of: PNT being an essential but invisible tool / weapon...

We were very pleased to see our colleague from the U.S. President's National Space-based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board, Matt Higgins, appear on this year's King's Birthday Honours List receiving the Public Service Medal. Matt is one of three...

Image: GPSJam.org What's New: Russian defensive jamming and/or spoofing seems to have ramped up in early June near St. Petersburg and lapped over into the airspace of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.  Why It's Important: Aviation safety and air traffic control are...

Image: Skytruth What's New: Numerous reports of AIS spoofing. The most prominent was by the New York Times about a Russian oil tanker trying to evade surveillance and maintain its insurance coverage. Of course, AIS spoofing, especially by Russia, is not new. See, for...

Image: Minister Harbers, NL govt photo by Martijn Beekman Minister Mark Harbers is an important guy in The Netherlands. He is responsible for infrastructure and water management. With much of the country at or below sea level already, water management is a bid deal....

Image: RNT Foundation What's New: Saudi Arabia is upgrading its Loran-C system to eLoran (OK, so not really new since this is from April, but we just saw the announcement). Why It's Important: While most governments say they are concerned about GNSS disruption, some...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: Ligado sought permission for terrestrial broadcast in Canada on frequencies adjacent to GPS and was denied.  The FCC granted Ligado permission to do so in the U.S. This decision was appealed by seven groups one of which was the RNT...

Image: US Air Force What's New: In just the last several days two different organizations in the Dept of Defense have had media releases about magnetic navigation. Why its Important: Lots of folks, DOD especially, are always looking for ways to navigate when GPS and...

Blog Editor's Note: We missed this announcement somehow when it came out last month.  Nevertheless, we are very glad to welcome MS Dyer to the community! "The GPS Innovation Alliance seeks to protect, promote, and enhance use of GPS."  So, a lot of shared interests...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: Russians are interfering with more than just GPS signals. They are jamming higher power satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) also. Why It's Important: Calculating one's location using communications satellites can be an alternative if...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: The Dept of Transportation (Office of the Secretary, interestingly, not FAA) is asking for public input on "Advanced Air Mobility" or AAM. According to NASA "The vision of AAM is that of a safe, accessible, automated, and affordable air...

Image: RNT Foundation Blog Editor's Note: The author of this article is President of the RNT Foundation. UK considering eLoran broadcast licenses May 23, 2023  - By Dana Goward The United Kingdom’s spectrum agency, Ofcom, is seeking comments on its proposal to issue...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: The authors are President and Chairman of the Board of the RNT Foundation.   Opinion Defending Taiwan by countering China’s biggest threat  Dana A. Goward and Martin C. Faga May 22, 2023 Dana A. Goward is president of the...

What's the news: National Cybersecurity Strategy doesn't recognize PNT as a critical component of cyber. Why it's important: IT systems use PNT feeds for data and to operate systems. Most PNT inputs are GPS-based. GPS signals are very easy to deny or imitate (hack)....

Image: European Space Agency What's New: Europe's concern about the increasing amount of dangerous debris in space threating Galileo, GPS and other satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). What to Know: There are MILLIONS, maybe tens of millions, of pieces of debris in...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: A summary of various cyber attack vectors using GPS/GNSS by long-time RNTF member Chronos. Why It's Important:  There has been a long standing debate in government as to whether PNT disruption is an electronic warfare or cyber problem....

Department of Defense Image What's New: We included this as part of another post last week, but decided it was too important to be buried as part of something else. A great perspective on: China deliberately, over the long haul, using every lever of national power and...

Image: Shutterstock An informative LinkedIn post from our friends at NLA International.   How Resilient Position, Navigation and Timing can INSPIRe greater confidence in the Blue Economy Blue Economy Pulse 2,012 followers Follow May 12, 2023 By Phil...

Image: Govt of Japan What's New: Japan is increasing the number of its regional navigation satellites from 4 to either 7 or 11.  Either way will allow users positioning, navigation, and timing independently from GPS. Why It's Important:  Nations are concerned GPS may...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: Growing awareness of multiple threats from China, including their huge Tactical PNT advantage in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea Strategic PNT advantage to the USA with Ability to attempt to influence policy and actions by threats...

Image: National Assn. of Broadcasters What's New: More information about how TV broadcasts could be used to provide PNT independent of GPS. We have posted about this before. The article excerpted below provides an updated description. Why It's Important: Having more...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: Several new papers showing how to use communications satellites to derive PNT. Why It's Important: There are lots of comms satellites up there They are in Low Earth Orbit, verses Medium Earth Orbit for GPS/GNSS, so signals are much...

Department of Defense Image What's New: An impassioned short speech on the floor of the Senate by Sen. Wicker, ranking member of the Armed Services Committee Why it is Important: Part of a growing awareness of China as a multi, multi, multi dimensional threat. And a...

Image: US Air Force What's New: Senior aerospace executive acknowledges DOD does not seem interested in doing anything other than tinkering with better PNT. What to Know: The Government Accountability Office issued three reports in 15 months criticizing the way DOD...

Europe's STRIKE3 project showed that 90% of interference signals are accidental. That doesn't mean they are harmless. Think about the commercial passenger aircraft that was almost lost in Sun Valley. And the major disruptions last year in Dallas and Denver. We wonder...

Image: Shutterstock "Over just the last few years, the quantity and quality of counterspace threats have increased significantly," What's New: DOD information about threats in space. Most, if not all, is a rehash of publicly available congressional testimony. But it...

Image: YouTube - Chinese spacecraft damages US satellite, "Space Force" Episode 1 What's New: Leaked classified documents obtained by the Washington Post indicate government intelligence agrees with what most observers have been saying. In a conflict over Taiwan,...

Image: NASA What's New: Here is the agenda for the President's Space-based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board meeting in Annapolis, MD next week (3rd and 4th of May). What to Know: You don't have to go to Annapolis to attend the meeting! A link to...

Image: Shutterstock 91 groups across a wide range of industries have sent a letter urging the Biden Administration and Congress to work with the FCC to stay and ultimately set aside the harmful Ligado Order. In the letter, the groups stated: “Three years after...

Image: Drone crash caused by GPS interference - UK Civil Aviation Authority What's New: First report we have seen about Ukraine using spoofing. To be expected, but now its in the open. Why It's Important: It is an affirmation that this goes on all the time on all...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: A commercial satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) that enabled highly precise (2 cm) GPS positioning failed. This was NOT a problem with GPS.  Why it's Important:  Precise navigation has meant huge savings in fertilizer,...

Image: HIMARS - Shutterstock What's New: Leaked classified documents show Russian jamming GPS signals significantly impacts US weapons in Ukraine. Most of the media has focused on JDAM "smart bombs."  Other GPS-guided systems like the M270 and HIMARS seem to be...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: An annual report on counterspace capabilities of various nations by our friends at Secure World Foundation Not just the usual suspects. The report includes info on Australia, South Korea, Japan, France, the UK, among others. Why its...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: TrustPoint launched the "First Commercially-Funded, Purpose-Built PNT Microsatellite." Why Its Important:  PNT from space has always been an expensive and government-sponsored effort.  Several companies have been formed to provide PNT...

What's New: CSIS released their annual Space Threat Assessment yesterday. Lots of focus on Russia attacking Ukraine, of course. And the other usual players - China, Iran, North Korea, India. GPS is mentioned 37 times. New insight: Use of commercial space by Ukraine...

Image: Shutterstock Note: The author is President of the RNT Foundation. Increasing GNSS interference: UK and EU warn aviation Est. reading time: 2:30 April 11, 2023  - By Dana Goward “Since February 2022, there has been an increase in jamming and/or possible spoofing...

Image: GPSJam.org What's New: Even more interference with GNSS in the mid-east. - Go figure. Note the reports of earlier instances of spoofing also. We wonder if the impacts were only felt in aviation? No mention in the article. On the ground were Uber, Lyft still...

What's New: Last month the EU released its report on its alternative PNT demonstration project. Why it's Important: The project, begun in 2020, examined technologies from 6 different companies. It confirmed there are mature technologies capable of providing time and...

Image: Director National Intelligence What's New: The Director of National Intelligence's 2023 Threat Assessment reinforced existing info about the threats by Russia and China against our space-based assets. Why its Important:  China and Russia have alternatives to...

Image: Shutterstock What's New: Increasing discussion of GPS/GNSS receivers as computers and vulnerable to software attacks. Why It's Important: This is yet another vulnerability for equipment and users that access weak, easily imitated GNSS signals. What Could,...

Image: US Coast Guard What's New: Well, the paper below is from last year, but our alert member Jens just discovered and sent it to us. This is the most recent in a series of papers documenting and supporting China's expansion of eLoran into the western part of the...

Image: GPSPatron Northern Norway seems to be a hotbed of GNSS jamming. We have seen regular reports of interference from Russia across the border.  Yesterday the folks at GPSPatron reported more jamming there again. And recently the Norwegian government announced it...

Image: Shutterstock (and is that an oil spill?) What's New: Maritime is getting ever closer to autonomous operation.  Why its Important: Except for China, needed navigation systems are not in place to do this safely. Safe automatic navigation will require a layered...

Image: Univ of Texas Blog Editor's Note: If commercial aviation had a 99.9% safety record, in a normal year there would be 4,000 plane crashes around the world every day. That's why each component of a safety of life system is built to the most rigorous of standards...

Image: Shutterstock Blog Editor's Note: This is not the first of these we have seen. Even more dramatic were reports we have forwarded you about a Scottish criminal gang using all kinds of jammers to run drugs and commit heinous acts, and devices being found in the...

Image: Shutterstock We have been talking with aviation folks in Congress and elsewhere about the impact of GPS disruption on aviation.  Here are three one-pagers we have been using. Feel free to distribute and use yourself! Click on each to download. For more on each...

Image: US Navy/DVIDS, DOD CIO John Sherman and USAF LGEN Robert Skinner What's New: The Department of Defense CIO said adversaries are going attack GPS on the first day of any conflict. Getting alternatives now is a high priority, Why it's Important: The CIO is the...