GPS World

Tag: Peter DeFazio

  • Lawmakers slam DHS for late, error-filled PNT report

    Lawmakers slam DHS for late, error-filled PNT report

    DHS report cover
    DHS report cover

    Members of Congress were not pleased with the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report on positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), saying the long-delayed report contained numerous errors and failed to address many of the things Congress had required.

    On the April 8, DHS submitted to Congress the brief, 26-page report on the nation’s PNT requirements. It took more than three years to produce and was delivered more than two years late.

    In comparison, just two weeks earlier a team of eight British organizations sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA) issued a 1,174-page report on the PNT needs of maritime commerce. The report from the Maritime Resilience and Integrity of Navigation (MarRINav) project was produced in less than a year.

    House Transportation Committee Chair Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee Chair John Garamendi (D-CA) and Representative Alex Mooney (R-WV) expressed their disappointment this week in a letter to DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf. In addition to outlining their concerns, it asked that the report be retracted, rewritten and resubmitted within six months.

    While the letter did not specifically mention the contrast between the DHS and British efforts, it did use the MarRINav report as a reference. And it was clear that the disparity in length and quality of the reports accentuated the disappointment for those who had hoped for a better product from DHS.

    The letter asked that the report be retracted, rewritten and resubmitted within six months.

    Factual errors

    Factual errors in the DHS report, according to the letter, included getting the mandated timing for financial systems wrong, and mischaracterizing coverage areas and capabilities of various technologies including several that had been recently demonstrated for the Department of Transportation (DOT).

    The letter also observed that DHS focused on commercial PNT users to the detriment of most Americans. It failed to consider the needs of public service organizations, governmental entities, and individual citizens in its analysis.

    The lawmakers contend the report did not recognize that PNT provided by GPS is frequently a safety-of-life service and a public good that must be reinforced to protect economic vitality and national security.

    Suspending operations, subscribing are flawed options

    Two of the solutions to temporary GPS disruptions suggested in the DHS report are for users to suspend operations until the disruption is over, and to have purchased commercial PNT services as backups in advance of a disruption.

    Suspending operations for emergency services and other critical functions is unacceptable, say the congressmen. And commercial PNT services to provide needed wide area PNT backups are not available.

    Even if they were available, questions of affordability for the many non-profit and public entities that needed them, whether it would be more cost effective for the federal government to support such services, and similar issues would need to be addressed before the department could make a recommendation.

    Suspending operations for emergency services and other critical functions is unacceptable.

    No national backup

    The letter also observed that the department has discounted the value of a national backup system, a position that seems to conflict with both longstanding and recent presidential policy. Having a backup for GPS has been policy since President Bush established the requirement in 2004. President Trump’s recent Responsible Use of PNT Executive Order called for a national research program on non-space-based PNT and “…mandates the Department of Commerce make available a GNSS independent source of Coordinated Universal Time for all users.”

    DHS’ recommendation against a national backup also differs from the Europe/UK MarRINav report. In addition to calling for improvements to be made by commercial entities such as port and ship operators, MarRINav identifies the need for “terrestrial and sovereign” eLoran and VHF DES Ranging mode systems to support reliable maritime commerce. Establishing such systems will require support by the national government.

    Government support

    Photo: Toshe_O/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images
    Photo: Toshe_O/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

    Most members of industry agree that some government involvement is needed. A CEO of one of the companies demonstrating its backup technology for DOT observed that the market would never solve the problem on its own.

    “We have tried for 16 years to figure out a business case, and it’s just not there,” the CEO said. “GPS is too good and it’s free. You can’t compete with that. If America is going to have one or more new wide-area capabilities that most people can use — not just niche solutions for high-demand, well-heeled customers — the government is going to have to prime the pump.”

    DHS did propose some efforts that resonated with the Congressmen, such as encouraging use of GPS receivers that resist spoofing and jamming. The lawmakers described these as “necessary but grossly insufficient” before requesting the report be withdrawn and redone.

    DHS’ “Report on Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Backup and Complementary Capabilities to the Global Positioning System (GPS)” is available here.

    The letter from Congressmen DeFazio and Garamendi is available here.

    The Maritime Resilience and Integrity of Navigation (MarRINav) project report is available here.

  • Congressman DeFazio: ‘GPS backup vital for national security’

    Congressman DeFazio: ‘GPS backup vital for national security’

    RNT Foundation Directors and Congressmen. From left: RADM Jeff Hathaway, USCG (ret); Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA); Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR); Dana A. Goward, SES, CAPT, USCG (ret); and CAPT Pauline Cook, USCG (ret). (Photo: Resilient PNT Foundation)
    RNT Foundation Directors and Congressmen. From left: RADM Jeff Hathaway, USCG (ret); Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA); Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR); Dana A. Goward, SES, CAPT, USCG (ret); and CAPT Pauline Cook, USCG (ret). (Photo: Resilient PNT Foundation)

    “It’s absolutely vital for national security that we get a terrestrial based, hard backup system [for GPS],” said Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

    His remarks came at an event organized by the RNT Foundation to recognize DeFazio and Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA) for their support of the National Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2018. Representative Garamendi is chairman of the House Armed Services Readiness subcommittee.

    Garamendi first introduced legislation in 2016 to address the nation’s need for a GPS backup system. After going through several iterations, it was signed into law in December. The Act requires the Department of Transportation to establish a terrestrial timing system by 2020. Also, that the new system be expandable to one that can be used for location and navigation.

    Congress funded a GPS Backup Technology Demonstration through a Department of Defense appropriation in early 2018. The demonstration was intended to be a joint project of the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Transportation. A delay in transferring funds from Defense to the other two departments put the demonstration almost a year behind schedule. Now that the project is underway, Transportation Department representatives have said they want to transition directly from the demonstration to deciding upon and implementing the mandated timing system.

    At the event, DeFazio remarked that as a boater and hiker he is an avid user of GPS. He mentioned that it is an “ incredible utility, but I also know of its vulnerability. It’s critical to national security and the meaningful movement of everything in the United States of America from airplanes to surface transportation and others … It’s absolutely vital for national security that we get a terrestrial based, hard backup system.” He also noted that Congressman Garamendi has been the driving force for this issue in the House of Representatives.

    Speaking about his current role on the Armed Services committee, Garamendi said “The reality is that the military is not prepared for the loss of the GPS signal, and they are just now becoming aware after seven years of beating them over the head saying ‘guys, what are you going to do when you don’t have GPS?’” Garamendi noted that the military would be a big users of the domestic backup system.

    He also regretted that after “… years of people saying ‘single point of failure’ for the American economy and system is the loss of GPS” the nation is not farther along to having a backup system.

    The RNT Foundation presented the congressmen with plaques showing images of a GPS satellite and a terrestrial transmission tower, and 0ne of America’s “first GPS devices” — a 102-year-old copy of The American Practical Navigator by Nathaniel Bowditch.

     

  • Bill Supports eLoran as GPS Backup

    A bi-partisan group of legislators led by Congressman John Garamendi (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill that would require the U.S. Secretary of Defense to establish a backup for GPS within three years using eLoran.

    The National Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2015, H.R. 1678, was co-sponsored by Congressmen Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J). Garamendi is the ranking member of the House Transportation and uInfrastructure Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.

    H.R. 1678 would require the secretary of defense, in coordination with the commandant of the Coast Guard and the secretary of transportation, to establish and sustain a reliable, land-based positioning and navigation system that will complement and backup America’s GPS for military and civilian uses by using eLoran.

    eLoran is the government’s existing and underused long-range navigation system infrastructure. The backup system would step in when GPS signals are corrupted, degraded, unreliable, or otherwise unavailable. A terrestrial-based system, eLoran wouldn’t be affected by atmospheric interruptions such as solar storms, or jamming or spoofing aimed at GPS.

    The bill directs the secretary of defense to incorporate the expertise and contributions of the private sector to quickly establish  system architecture, as well as build and operate the system.

    “GPS is much more than a LCD screen on your dashboard. It’s a technology used for much of our nation’s critical infrastructure and by almost every major industry in America, as well as the military, law enforcement, and first responders,” Garamendi said in a press release. “We are increasingly reliant on the precision, navigation, and timing services that GPS provides. From land navigation on cell phones to a timing source for our national infrastructure, we need a reliable backup system to GPS.”

    Garamendi said the bill would make the nation’s geopositioning infrastructure more resilient to “threats both natural and nefarious.” “A backup system could also reach places that GPS currently cannot, such as inside many buildings. This would help first responders and law enforcement more effectively protect the public,” he added.

    Other members of Congress are expected to sign on as co-sponsors after Congress returns from its spring recess, according to Dana A. Goward, president and executive director, Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation.

    The eLoran PNT system would use enhanced long-range signals (eLoran) from 19 towers around the country, each with approximately a 1,000-mile range providing overlapping fields from which a device can derive its location. The back-up system would use the remaining Loran infrastructure and provide a secure and reliable cybersecurity insurance policy, said the press release.

    The U.S. atomic clock, accurate to one second in 300 million years, also serves as the base timing source for this backup GPS capability. This exceeds the timing needs of modern cell phones, creating an infrastructure backbone that is prepared to handle the evolution of consumer and industry electronic communications in the years ahead, the press release said.

    The bill sets out numerous requirements for the system, saying that it shall:

    • Be wireless, terrestrial, and wide area
    • Provide a precise, high-power 100 kilohertz signal
    • Be resilient and extremely difficult to disrupt or degrade
    • Be able to penetrate underground and inside buildings
    • Take full advantage of existing, unused Loran infrastructure
    • Work in concert with and complement any other similar positioning, navigation and timing systems, including eLoran.

    Since 2004, the federal government has recognized that the absence of a reliable backup system for GPS is a glaring economic and security threat to the United States, and has reaffirmed its interest in developing an eLoran as a reliable, land-based backup for GPS signals, the press release said.

    In January, the United States Army began soliciting information for eLoran receivers for the warfighter, either stand-alone or integrated with GPS, for use in Army and other Department of Defense maritime, aviation, or vehicular platforms, and for position and timing.

    The United Kingdom began using eLoran in October 2014 to protect its shipping lanes, which carry 95 percent of UK trade, in case of GPS signal loss.