Fourteen industry associations, including aviation, automotive, boating, and satellite groups, sent a letter asking the Department of Defense and Department of Transportation to fix the GPS jamming and spoofing situation. Signatories include AEA, AOPA, ALPA, A4A, Aviation Spectrum Resources, GAMA, National Agricultural Aviation Association, NBAA, and others.
The letter doesn’t ask for developing a backup for GPS but focuses on fixing problems inherent to GPS. “The nation’s trust in GPS has been well-placed since it entered service in 1993,” the letter explained. “GPS has never experienced an outage. The U.S. Space Force does an outstanding job ensuring the overall GPS system operates consistently at a 99.99% availability rate. The latest generation of GPS satellites deliver exceptional capabilities to users.
“Yet, programmatic challenges have continued: the GPS ground station upgrade, known as OCX, started in 2010 and is not operational. OCX cannot yet monitor the health and integrity of new, modern signals designed for aviation nor control next generation GPS IIIF satellites. Counter-spoofing signal-authentication technologies are not included in the program plan. These capabilities are necessary for modern signals to become operational and available to integrate into aviation-certified GPS receivers and for increased resiliency to jamming and spoofing. Furthermore, nine of the 32 on-orbit GPS satellites, which have long outlived their expected useful service lives, are ‘single string,’ with one system or subsystem failure away from being nonoperational. Older satellites should be replaced expeditiously to eliminate these vulnerabilities and upgrade the full constellation and ground station to the state of the art…We must preserve the nation’s trust in GPS and should expeditiously do so.”
“GPS technology has long been essential, not just for business aviation, but more broadly, for the nation's economy, transportation, defense, and other critical functions," said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. “Jamming, spoofing, and other intentional disruptions to GPS pose a serious threat to safety, security, and reliability. NBAA joins with the other organizations in partnering with the GPS Innovation Alliance to urge government leaders to work together on upgrades, investments, and other approaches for hardening the technology from interference by nefarious actors.”