Honeywell Rolls Out Alternatives for Jammed Navigation Signals

Honeywell Aerospace recently launched its Alternative Navigation Architecture (HANA) software solution, designed to ensure resilient navigation in environments where satellite signals may be spoofed, jammed, or inaccessible. Although the group has been developing methods to support non-GPS navigation for around a decade, the latest technology responds to a growing threat to aviation safety and security.

“What we’re seeing in terms of the kind of conflict and the war going on in Eastern Europe is the need for alternate navigation,” explained Mike Vallillo, Honeywell Aerospace’s international v-p of defense and space, during a recent media visit to the company’s research and technology center at Brno in the Czech Republic.

HANA is designed to provide precise information on the aircraft’s position, velocity, and orientation when global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals are unavailable. According to Matt Picchetti, v-p of navigation and sensors, HANA applies to crewed and uncrewed aircraft, as well as military surface vehicles, and can run on the operator’s current computing platform, or one provided by Honeywell.

The initial iteration of the system includes vision-aided navigation, using live camera feeds to match ground imagery with map databases. Honeywell also aims to integrate magnetic anomaly and low-earth-orbit satellite solutions into the layered-architecture system next year.

Multiple Alternatives to Blocked Signals

Michal Zavisek, v-p and general manager at Honeywell Technology Solutions EMEA, said the company currently offers six or seven means of operating in a GPS-denied environment, combining variations of vision, magnetic, and radar-based solutions to provide full coverage—something no single standalone method can offer.

“Our key advantage is that we are able to merge those solutions to give [the customer] something that works all the time,” he explained. “Navigation with GPS isn’t enough for this.”

In 2024, Honeywell acquired Italian inertial navigation specialist Civitanavi Systems. The combination of the two companies’ expertise “means we really do have the technologies and capability to do everything in one platform, because ultimately the difference between electronics or an inertial system or a GNSS and the flight control computer is basically the software,” said Civitanavi Systems general manager Andrea Pizzarulli.

Despite the increased incidence of malicious GPS jamming and spoofing in the last few years—especially within Europe—Honeywell’s alternative navigation means were initially inspired by the needs of the emerging advanced air mobility (AAM) sector. This includes work on flight decks for eVTOLs.

“We always knew that in the precise navigation, relying on one source…or one type of the system is a risk. And I think one of the early indicators of that was when AAM started becoming a thing,” Vallillo said. “It’s not jamming or spoofing, but it’s the same problem, because you don’t see the sky. When these genuine spoofing activities started picking up, we saw that we were right—just that the risk is different.”