Russia Test Highlights Little US Progress in GPS Backup: Experts

Getting action on a terrestrial supplement or alternative to GPS requires more advocacy by the Department of Homeland Security about the danger of going without one, plus pilot programs testing various technologies rather than waiting to settle on one, said George Washington University Space Policy Institute Director Scott Pace Wednesday on a Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation/Domestic Preparedness Journal webinar. The government doesn't know which tech approach will work but should experiment with different ones and “see who can move quickly,” he said. Pace said technologies ranging from UHF to 5G could be employed in a backup system, but market ability to turn out millions of receivers also has to be considered in deciding which to choose. Speakers criticized a lack of government action. "There's a lot of understanding of what the issues are, a lot of kvetching and hand-wringing," said former Department of Transportation Assistant Secretary Greg Winfree, now director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Pace said lack of progress over the three previous presidential administrations shows a critical U.S. weakness in planning, budgeting and acquisition. “It's not a question of affordability [or] policy needs. We can't execute,” he said. Many speakers also said this week's anti-satellite missile test by Russia (see 2111160063) underlines the need to supplement GPS. The anti-satellite exercise was part technical test and part Moscow saber rattling, said Center for the National Interest Director of Studies George Beebe. He said U.S. reliance on GPS is one of the nation's key strategic weaknesses. Beyond such potential deliberate threats to GPS, it faces unintentional environmental ones such as interference from use of nearby spectrum, Pace said. "We need to be stewards of the entire noise floor," he said. Winfree said any GPS supplement or alternative needs to be shepherded by the federal government rather than left to the private sector. He likened it to the variety of electric car charging technologies and plugs in the market: “We would wind up with a Tower of Babel.”