US advances GPS back-up system

With support from both sides of the house this bill requires the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Coast Guard and the Transportation Department, to establish and sustain a reliable land-based positioning and navigation system that will complement and backup the nation’s Global Positioning System (GPS) for military and civilian uses. It would take advantage of the government’s existing and under-used ground based long-range navigation system infrastructure Loran C

This US support for the development of a back up system for GPS has significance in Europe as it is likely to focus attention on the development of a similar system to cover European waters. Promoted by the General Lighthouse Authorities the European system of e-Loran has reached the stage of establishing a trial system but further funding has not been forthcoming. The fact that the US government sees the need for a back up to GPS will provide valuable support for funding for the European system.

In the US it is recognised that GPS is a technology used for much of the nation’s critical infrastructure and by almost every major industry in America, as well as the military, law enforcement, and first responders. Nearly everything involved in transportation is increasingly reliant on the precision, navigation, and timing services that GPS can provide. This has focussed the need on a back-up system to take over in the event of a GPS failure.

The bipartisan bill promoted by Representative John Garamendi would establish a system to back up GPS, “Making our nation’s geo-positioning infrastructure more resilient to threats both natural and nefarious is vital,” Garamendi said. “A backup system could also reach places that GPS currently cannot, such as inside many buildings. This would help first responders and law enforcement to more effectively protect the public.”

The backup system required by this bill would step in when GPS signals are corrupted, degraded, unreliable, or otherwise unavailable. It would take advantage of the government’s existing and underused long-range navigation system infrastructure. Unlike GPS, which relies on satellites, Loran is ground-based, making it less susceptible to atmospheric interruption.

This US terrestrial system would use enhanced long range signals (E-Loran) from 19 towers around the U.S., each with approximately a 1,000-mile range providing overlapping fields from which a device can derive its location. In Europe the Loran C stations that covered much of Northern Europe were close down with the advent of GPS coverage but the proposed e-Loran plan would see these resurrected.

Since 2004, the US Federal government has recognized that the absence of a reliable backup system for GPS is a glaring economic and security threat to the U.S. and there is similar concern from many operators in the marine sector in Europe. The European Galileo satellite system which becomes operational in a few years’ time could be vulnerable to failure in the same way as GPS. This US initiative will be seen as providing major support for the development of the European e-Loran system which currently is restricted to the trial systems in British waters.

By Dag Pike