Tag: PNT report

GAO Report checks defense on PNT tech
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A May report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) explores Department of Defense (DOD) strategy for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) technology to complement GPS. The 51-page report takes a comprehensive view of alternative PNT policy and leadership across the department.

While GPS will remain the core of DOD’s PNT solution, it will use other PNT technology to complement GPS or as an alternative for when GPS is degraded or unavailable. DOD is exploring both improved sensors to provide relative PNT information, and external sources to provide absolute positioning and navigation.

DOD also is working to create common standards and interfaces to help integrate and field new PNT technologies faster and at lower cost. DOD also is developing its PNT modeling and simulation capabilities to evaluate the performance of new PNT technologies.

Challenges for DOD

Officials from across DOD and experts told GAO that alternative PNT solutions are not prioritized within DOD. For example, there is no central program office responsible for developing the variety of alternative PNT technologies across DOD.

DOD’s continued reliance on GPS, despite known GPS vulnerabilities to disruption, presents a challenge for obtaining sufficient support to develop viable alternatives. Defense officials and experts also said challenges in establishing clear PNT performance requirements hinder technology development.

In response, GAO developed six policy options that may help address challenges with developing and integrating alternative PNT technologies. The policy options identify possible actions by policymakers, who may include Congress, federal agencies and industry groups.
1. Increase collaboration. Consider mechanisms to coordinate across DOD to clarify responsibilities and authorities in prioritizing the need for alternative PNT technologies.
2. Focus on resiliency. Consider selecting the most resilient technologies as the cornerstone of the PNT suite for military missions, rather than defaulting to GPS.
3. Clarify requirements. Consider opportunities to clarify what level of PNT performance actually is needed for missions, rather than defaulting to requirements that match GPS performance.
4. Coordinate with industry. Consider ensuring DOD and industry coordinate so that industry is prepared to meet DOD’s needs, and DOD can leverage industry advances.
5. Institutionalize open architecture. Consider making the open architecture initiative more permanent, including providing funding.
6. Analyze vulnerabilities. Consider having DOD conduct ongoing analysis of vulnerabilities of different PNT systems.
The GAO reviewed technical studies, agency documents, and other key reports; interviewed government officials and researchers about alternative PNT technologies; and convened a three-day meeting of experts from government, non-governmental organizations, academia and industry.
June 20, 2021
DHS on the mark with PNT report, industry says

DHS report cover

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security “did exactly what was required by Congress” in issuing its report in June on positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), according to a letter sent by numerous PNT companies to the DHS.

The July 17 letter to Chad F. Wolf, acting secretary of Homeland Security, refutes a previous letter from Congressional representatives that the report contained numerous errors and failed to address many of the things Congress had required.

“We believe that some key claims made in the members’ letter of June 9 are either exaggerated, irrelevant to the report’s Congressional tasking, or simply wrong,” states the July 17 letter, which is signed by senior executives of Satelles, Orolia, Iridium, Navsys, Jackson Labs, Seven Solutions and Qulsar.

The group takes on the claims of the representatives point by point, finding them exaggerated, irrelevant or incorrect.

For instance, the letter critical of the DHS report states:

“The report focuses on the needs of ‘industry’ largely ignoring the needs and impacts on public services (including first responders), government operations, and individual citizens.”

In response, the industry representatives state:

“The focus of the report, as directed by the NDAA, is on the requirements of the owners and operators of national critical infrastructure. This includes “public services, government operations,” and its beneficiaries, “individual citizens.” To the extent that the report focuses on incentivizing the industry, it is in order for it to be able to meet these requirements.

“While the report only highlights PNT use cases from a subset of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors, their pragmatic recommendations address a range of requirements across all sectors. With respect to PNT needs for backing up GPS, DHS acknowledges the differences between and commonalities among the sectors and offers exceptional guidance for leveraging the capabilities of diverse forms of commercially available alternative PNT rather than endorsing a single, anti-competitive, government-imposed solution.”

Read the full text of the industry letter here.

July 21, 2020
Lawmakers slam DHS for late, error-filled PNT report

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

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.

June 9, 2020