- French and UK tech experts will collaborate on multiple projects
- One of them is to secure technology used in GPS systems
- GPS needs to be more resilient to blocking and jamming
British and French technology experts will be working together more closely to make GPS and other similar technologies more resistant to disruptions.
The news was announced by the UK Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) earlier this week. As per the announcement, experts from the two countries will work together on a number of different projects, including strengthening the resilience of critical infrastructure to the signal-jamming seen in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
“From our electricity infrastructure, to transport, to financial transactions, the tech we rely on for everyday life depends on reliable Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT), often provided via satellites,” the announcement reads. “The conflict in Ukraine has shown how new technologies – in some cases, just small hand-held devices – can be used to disrupt PNT services, potentially causing major disruption to the vast areas of life and the economy reliant on them.”
e-LORAN
One of these complementary technologies, highly resistant to jamming, is e-LORAN, a system that uses ground-based radio towers as a “backup” to GPS. DSIT describes it as being “much more challenging” to block, and as such can keep critical UK infrastructure technology running “even when GPS fails”.
The war in Ukraine seems to have exposed significant weaknesses of today’s GPS systems, which could end up in tragedy. According to Ukrainska Pravda, The Telegraph’s researchers examined Flight Radar data for the first four months of 2024, which included 63 UK military aircraft completing 1,467 flights over Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
“During this time, the United Kingdom’s military aviation flew 504 transport and reconnaissance missions over Eastern Europe, with 142 of them encountering GPS jamming, and in 60 cases, such efforts occurred multiple times,” the publication explained.
At the same time, Business Insider reported that Finnish soldiers were training with “basic navigation tools” – paper maps and compasses, due to the unreliability of GPS systems.
Via The Register