Restoring the U.S. Advantage in Satellite Navigation
Published February 10, 2025
@ 8:00 am
By Marc J. Berkowitz
The United States has ceded its leadership position in space-based positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), with stark ramifications for most all U.S. critical infrastructures and the U.S. military.
The Global Positioning System (GPS), which is owned and operated by the U.S. government, is vital to America’s well-being, prosperity and security in an increasingly competitive and dangerous world. The majority of the current satellite constellation is comprised of old space vehicles, with the oldest launched in the 1990s. Of the 31 satellites in the current GPS constellation, only seven are the more advanced GPS IIIs with better accuracy and the civilian L1C signal, which enables interoperability between GPS and international satellite navigation systems.
China’s Beidou and Europe’s Galileo satellite systems not only have surpassed GPS, but GPS is vulnerable to a variety of threats such as jamming and spoofing –sending false signals to receivers in place of valid ones.
Vital to national security and the economy
Satellite navigation is essential for U.S. civil, scientific and commercial activities as well as homeland security and national defense.
GPS has transformed Americans’ way of life. All 16 critical infrastructure sectors, including agriculture, emergency services, energy, financial services, information and communications and transportation, rely upon GPS. From enabling precision farming, synchronizing financial transactions and cell phone networks, increasing the safety of land, rail, maritime and flight operations, to enabling first responders to navigate accurately to emergencies, GPS impacts our daily lives.
https://defenseopinion.com/the-u-s-must-restore-its-advantage-in-satellite-navigation/824/
