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...

Blog Editor's Note: We have noticed renewed concern among many in the field at the lack of discussion and effort on GPS/GNSS receiver resilience to software attacks. For example, RNTF member and PNT expert Guy Buesnel recently mentioned this in an excellent Linkedin...

Blog Editor's Note: Thanks to Guy Buesnel for pointing out the most recent press on GPS jamming and car theft (this time it is a report from India). We highly recommend Guy's Linkedin GNSS Vulnerabilities group. As our regular readers know, this is just the latest in...

Blog Editor’s Note: Recent Russian jamming in northern Norway impacted air traffic. Russian jamming in the Baltic disrupted telecommunications and other services in several countries. The Russians have also repeatedly demonstrated the ability to spoof GPS and make...

Periodically RNTF will post 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...

Blog Editor's Note: Yesterday the President signed the National Defense Authorization Act for 2018.  This Act, now law, includes a requirement for the Secretaries of Defense, Transportation and Homeland Security to complete a demonstration of a GPS backup capability...

Blog Editor's Note: Very conservative Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and very liberal Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) are about as far apart on the political spectrum as you can get in these polarized days. So it really says something about the apolitical importance of this issue...

Blog Editor's Note: Several outlets have reported on Denmark's recent report about the need to bring some structure to how autonomous ships will be regarded and operated. We heartily agree, and resilient navigation needs to be at the top of the list! Relying solely on...

Blog Editor's Note: The workshop report discussed and linked to in the article below provides an interesting overview of timing issues and ways forward for the smart electric grid. Of note on page 18 (Table 6-1) of the report is an R&D priority to "Break...

Blog Editor's Note:  The British government has been actively addressing this issue. See the economic impact analysis they did earlier this year. We understand additional work has been done and another report or plan will be released soon. Two things keep Britain’s...

Periodically RNTF will post 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...

Blog Editor's Note: A fairly comprehensive article focusing on commercial users. One item we had not seen before - a mention that some companies may look to business-interruption insurance to cover their losses from GPS disruptions, but generally it is not covered. ...

Periodically RNTF will post 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...

Periodically RNTF will post 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...

If GPS Failed, We’d Be More Than Lost Congress should fund a land-based navigation system in case the other one goes down. Wall Street Journal Opinion & Commentary By A.P.D.G. Everett and Alex Berezow Nov. 26, 2017 4:04 p.m. North Korea and Russia pose...

Blog Editor's Note: In a very interesting presentation to the PNT Advisory Board recently, Mr. Ed Powers of the US Naval Observatory discussed several topics: The importance of GPS time signals for numerous critical infrastructures The history of precise time...

Blog Editor's Note: This is an interesting article, though it would have been more helpful if it would have said which systems were hacked.  One has the impression that the navigation sensors were not impacted (i.e. no jamming or spoofing), but it is not clear.  It...

Blog Editor's Note: This was the US Naval Institute Proceedings "Proceedings Today" daily post for November 21st 2017 under the title "Prudent Mariners Need a GPS Backup." Proceedings Magazine November 2017 Vol 143/11/1,377 Captain Dana A. Goward, U. S. Coast Guard...

Blog Editor's Note: Describing a "civilian battlefield," Mike Jones from Roke Manor gave an outstanding presentation this week to the US National PNT Advisory Board. He discussed the ease with which GNSS jamming and spoofing can be detected, and available technology...

The House and Senate agreed Wednesday on the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2018. It included at least two provisions of interest to our readers: SEC. 1606. DEMONSTRATION OF BACKUP AND COMPLEMENTARY POSITIONING, NAVIGATION, AND TIMING CAPABILITIES...