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Home »Norway Armed Forces – “GPS Failures Endanger National Security”
Norway has reacted to the GPS timing errors at the end of January by halting demolition of their Loran infrastructure. Here is an interesting article from the Norwegian Armed Forces Forum on how the SVN-23 timing errors were viewed and the steps being taken by one...
Robot Ships Trading by 2020
By Maritime Executive 2016-04-12 12:56:58 Last week, the Rolls-Royce led Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA) project presented its first findings at a conference in Helsinki, expressing high hopes for vessel automation in commercial service...
Update – North Korea Testing New Jammers?
While comprehensive information about North Korea’s most recent spate of GPS jamming has yet to be made available, additional and intriguing bits continue to appear every couple of days. North Korea began jamming on the 31st of March and the last incident so far was...
Is GPS Jamming the New Normal?
Guest Post by Mr. Charles Schue, CEO, UrsaNav, Inc. Over the past several days, North Korea has “reached across its borders” to jam GPS signals in South Korea. This had been a yearly occurrence for a while happening in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Its resurgence this year...
Invitation to Special Event at NYSE: Focus on Secure Timing
Juniper Networks, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, will host a special event at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, April 19, 8:30-11:30 a.m. Attend the Opening Bell Viewing, followed by briefings of why precision timing is so critical...
N. Korea Jamming Impacts Ships, Aircraft
Contradicting initial reports in the New York Times of no impact, the South Korean KBS News Radio reported that maritime and aviation traffic has been disrupted. This aligns with reports published by the BBC and other outlets. 5 April 2016 Korea Times Report BBC...
North Korea Jamming GPS in the South…again
South Korean officials have reported that their neighbors to the north are, once again, jamming GPS signals, according to an item in the New York Times. The report says that the jamming is weaker than in previous events and that air and ship traffic and...
Congressmen Oppose NDGPS Plan Pending “Resilient PNT Architecture”
Blog Editor Note: In December a group of Congressmen wrote to Deputy Secretary Mendez at the Department of Transportation objecting to DoT's plans to demolish and dispose of National Differential GPS infrastructure. They agreed that some signals may be needed, but...
The Need to Clarify Galileo’s Legal Basis for Time – GPS World
GPS World March 28, 2016 - By Tim Reynolds One new potential wrinkle for Galileo was hinted at during the Munich Satellive Navigation Summit session in March on legal issues around GNSS timing. A recent GPS timing issue caused numerous problems for digital...
Where Time Comes From
Cool 6 minute video from the "Atlantic." If you want to see for yourself where time comes from, the RNT Foundation Annual Meeting will be on the 16th of May 2016 at the US Naval Observatory. Join us for drinks, dinner and a tour. More soon!
Plunging into Solar Minimum: Time to Drop our Guard?
Guest Post By Joseph Kunches Most people know that disturbed space weather conditions can adversely impact GPS to various degrees. The Sun can roil the ionosphere and make signal propagation from satellites to the ground tricky or impossible. The good news is that...
Norway, UK Discuss eLoran Timing
The following was published by the Norwegian media outlet Bladet Vestralen. Translation Courtesy of Mr. Jens Hoxmark and Prof. David Last Loran Demolition stopped By Mareno Leonhardsen Published:17 March 2016 Bø: Minister of Transport and Communications Ketil...
DHS and UrsaNav Successfully Demonstrate Timing Inside NYSE
Guest Post by Stephen Bartlett, Vice President UrsaNav Corp. On March 8, 2016, UrsaNav, as part of the terms of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate, successfully...
PNT ExCom to Write Requirements for GPS Backup – “Inside GNSS”
Inside GNSS Glen Gibbons March 15, 2016 Addressing a long-unfulfilled presidential mandate, the Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Executive Committee (ExCom) has taken on reponsibility for initiating a process to identify and develop requirements...
DOT Advances Study on Protecting GPS Frequency
SUMMARY: The Department of Transportation, through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST–R), will begin testing Global Positioning System/Global Navigation Satellite System (‘‘GPS/GNSS’’) receivers this April pursuant to the DOT...
Best Ad for Jammers Ever
The Metro section of the Washington Post had an article yesterday: "Robbers allegedly tracked gambler with GPS they hid on car." It gets better. There was another GPS enabled tracker on this guy's car placed there by an investigator hired by his wife. The story has...
World Dodges GPS Bullet – GPS World
GPS World February 24, 2016 By Alan Cameron It happened in the blink of an eye. Less than a blink. Far less, actually. Slightly more than one one-thousandth of an eye blink, according to calculations. In that amount of time, one of your eyelashes traverses 10...
More Ain’t Necessarily Better!
Guest Post by Professor David Last Satellite navigation may be the most successful innovation of recent decades among science-based industries. As the number of receivers world-wide soars past 2 billion, GPS has been joined by Russia’s GLONASS, China’s Compass-Beidou,...
New GPS 3 ground system is the Pentagon’s “most troubled” program
Space News — February 22, 2016 by Mike Gruss WASHINGTON – Pentagon leaders say a new ground system for the next-generation of GPS satellites, one that has stymied Air Force officials and led to expensive cost overruns, is the Defense Department’s most troubled...
US Coast Guard Approves Paperless Navigation
USCG Press Release U.S. Coast Guard Approves Official Electronic Charts WASHINGTON – The U.S. Coast Guard published guidance that allows mariners to use electronic charts and publications instead of paper charts, maps and publications. The Coast Guard published...
15 of 31 GPS Satellites Had Errors – See Animation
During the GPS anomaly on the 25th and 26th of January users had up to six satellites in view transmitting erroneous time signals. According to John Lavrakas, President of Advance Research Corporation, 15 of the 31 GPS satellites were affected by the SVN23-related...
US Govt – ‘GPS Errors Felt Around the Globe, Across Industries’
Telecommunications systems around the world, broadcast systems in Europe, and Public Safety radios and aviation ground systems in the United States were among the technologies reported to the US government as being impacted by the GPS anomaly on the 25th and 26th of...
“Will Fund eLoran on a Chip” – NIST
Last week the National Institute of Standards and Technology announced that it wanted to fund development of an eLoran receiver that would fit on a microchip and could be easily incorporated into a variety of systems. The agency said its interest in this project was...
“GPS Error Caused ’12 hours of problems’ for Companies” – BBC.com
Feb 4, 2016 By Chris Baraniuk, Technology reporter, BBC.com Several companies were hit by hours of system warnings after GPS satellites broadcast the wrong time, according to time-monitoring company Chronos. The company observed problems last week, after noticing some...
BBC Outages Due GPS Disruption
UK radio disturbance caused by satellite network bug By Chris Baraniuk, Technology reporter BBC.Com An error with the Global Positioning System (GPS) network has been blamed for causing problems with digital radio broadcasts last week. The US Air Force said that...
Defense Department Researchers Push Plan Aimed at Avoiding Worldwide GPS Meltdown
By: Tom Roeder Gazette.com February 1, 2016 The Defense Department's top researchers want ground-based miniature atomic clocks to avert a global catastrophe if the orbiting timepieces that make up the Colorado Springs-based Global Positioning System stop ticking. The...
GPS Glitch Caused Outages, Fueled Arguments for Backup – Inside GNSS
"Inside GNSS" Dee Ann Divis, January 29, 2016 Less than a month after Europe switched off most of its Loran transmitters, a problem with GPS satellite timing signal triggered alarms across the continent and caused an unknown number of outages, including the disruption...
GPS Anomaly – Official USAF Statement
"Air Force Official Press Release - GPS Ground System Anomaly: On 26 January [2016] at 12:49 a.m. MST, the 2nd Space Operations Squadron at the 50th Space Wing, Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., verified users were experiencing GPS timing issues. Further investigation...
GPS Was Out For Some Yesterday
At 15:36 Greenwich Mean Time yesterday, GPS satellite SVN 23/PRN 32, the oldest satellite in the GPS constellation, became unusable. It was taken out of service at 22:00 GMT. See Notice. Although this was supposed to have been a routine decommissioning, reports from...
USCG Issues Safety Alert – GPS/GNSS, Trust But Verify
United States Coast Guard Marine Safety Alert 19 January 2016 Safety Alert 01-16 Global Navigation Satellite Systems – Trust, But Verify Report Disruptions Immediately Do you know what...
Were US Sailors ‘Spoofed’ Into Iranian Waters?
Christian Science Monitor - Passcode In 2011, Iran spoofed – or faked – Global Positioning System signals to send a CIA drone off course. Did it do the same to trick Navy vessels into Iranian waters? Opinion: Were US sailors 'spoofed' into Iranian waters? By Dana A....
Christian Sci Monitor – Why GPS is More Vulnerable than Ever
Christian Science Monitor - Passcode 8 January 2016 By Joe Uchill From a command center at Schriever Air Force Base, about 10 miles outside Colorado Springs, Colo., seven 20-something airmen are responsible for safeguarding global financial markets, international...
Taviga Welcomes Continued UK Transmissions
7 January 2016 Taviga welcomes the continued transmission of eLoran timing and data signals from the UK Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, UK Low frequency eLoran transmissions from Anthorn in Cumbria (UK) will continue despite the switch off of the legacy Loran-C...
Loran Off Air In Most of Europe – Move to Commercial Possible
Loran signals from France, Norway, Denmark and Germany were terminated on the 31st of December 2015 in accordance with longstanding plans. The United Kingdom's signal is still on air being transmitted from their facility at Anthorn. Signals were terminated as a result...
Tell NIST It’s About Time! – They Want Your Comments
NIST Seeking "Views on the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity" We were very disappointed last year when we attended a presentation by NIST on its “Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity." Not once was the importance of...
DHS: Drug Traffickers Are Spoofing Border Drones
DHS: Drug Traffickers Are Spoofing Border Drones Defense One DECEMBER 17, 2015 BY PATRICK TUCKER The homeland security agency, and local law enforcement as well, are looking to harden its drones against attack, but that comes at a price. The drug cartels aren’t just...
Volcker Alliance – ‘Government’s Greatest Achievements Being Lost in Breakdowns’
The recent Volcker Alliance paper "Vision + Action = Faithful Execution - Why Government Daydreams and How to Stop the Cascade of Breakdowns that Now Haunts It" should be a wake-up call for anyone who cares about America. It documents the increasing rate of major...
PNT ExCom Backs eLoran as a Step to Full GPS Backup System
Inside GNSS Dee Ann Divis December 10, 2015 The National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT ExCom) has recommended using enhanced Loran (eLoran) as a near-term alternative to GPS for essential timing data while it determines...
US to Build eLoran Timing, then Navigation Network to Complement GPS Timing
In letters dated the 8th of December, Department of Defense Deputy Secretary Robert Work and Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary Victor Mendez informed five members of Congress that the administration is working on a "near-term solution" to address...
Raytheon’s GPS control system is ‘a disaster’: U.S. Air Force general
Reuters Science | Tue Dec 8, 2015 6:22pm EST Force general WASHINGTON | BY ANDREA SHALAL The U.S. Air Force's top space official on Tuesday slammed a new ground control system for GPS satellites being built by Raytheon Co as "a disaster" and said the Pentagon planned...
Court – GPS Trumps Lightsquared
Dennis Bryant Bryant’s Maritime Blog – 8 December 2015 In an unpublished decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the judgment of the district court dismissing plaintiffs’ complaint against various manufacturers and sellers of global...
France, Norway Surrender Sovereignty, Expose Critical Infrastructure to Criminals, Terrorists – UK, Europe Suffer Also
France and Norway remain resolute in their determination to surrender their national sovereignty and increase their exposure to attacks on critical infrastructure from criminals and terrorists with easily obtainable $300 devices. Time and locations services from...
GPS vulnerabilities could open grid to hacks — DHS report
Peter Behr and Blake Sobczak, E&E reporters EnergyWire: Friday, October 30, 2015 A newly disclosed government report warns that the power grid may become more vulnerable to hacking attacks on the Global Positioning System as grid operators expand the use of advanced...
GPS World “Chronos and UrsaNav partner on Loran PNT networks”
The founders of Chronos and UrsaNav have formed a new collaboration, known as “Taviga”, to enhance the resilience and reliability of the many economic and business models that depend on space-based timing and positioning services. As good as space-based services are, they are known to have a susceptibility to interference and jamming.
US Jammed Own Satellites 261 Times In 2015; What If An Enemy Tried?
BreakingDefense.com By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. on December 02, 2015 at 4:00 AM WASHINGTON: Russia and China are investing heavily in cyber and electronic warfare, but they’re not shutting down US satellite downlinks yet. Instead, we have met the enemy and he is us —...
US DHS – ‘US Increasingly At Risk from Dependency on GPS’
"U.S. critical infrastructure sectors are increasingly at risk from a growing dependency on the Global Positioning System (GPS) for space-based position, navigation, and timing (PNT)." So begins the US Department of Homeland Security's 2012 "Risks to US Critical...
“Wildwood ELoran Tests Continue” – GPS World
GPS World, On-Line Edition November 2015 A short article on broadcast times and the nature of the research.
“Positioning with LTE Signals” GPS World Research Online
November 12, 2015 By GPS World staff An alternative to GNSS in urban canyons can be provided by signals from cellular base stations, particularly new signals from long-term evolution (LTE) networks, since LTE coverage will be high in cities. Wide LTE downlink...
“Innovation: Enhanced Loran” – GPS World
November 23, 2015 INNOVATION INSIGHTS with Richard Langley Quote of Note: WHERE HAVE ALL THE SYSTEMS GONE, long time passing? Radionavigation systems, that is (and apologies to Pete Seeger). If we look at the 1990 Federal Radionavigation Plan (FRP), published by the...
“Marine Corps CIO seeks to cordon off network” – FCW.com
FCW.com By Sean Lyngaas Nov 16, 2015 Quote of Note: Adversaries seek "to manipulate the information that we see so it's hard to determine the integrity of that," Crall said. "That is the most dangerous course of action because when you're looking at position,...