The Volpe National Transportation Systems Center of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a solicitation to obtain proposals from vendors with operationally ready complementary positioning, navigation and timing (CPNT) services to be used for testing and evaluation in the Rapid Phase of the DOT’s CPNT Action Plan.

The Volpe Center is seeking proposals from industry professionals to deploy PNT services with a technical readiness level (TRL) of eight or higher.

The evaluation conditions will include situations where GPS/GNSS service is disrupted or manipulated, and CPNT‐specific threat vectors are introduced. Proposals are encouraged to be tailored to critical infrastructure PNT user requirements with the expectation that Rapid Phase evaluation results will be shared with sector risk management agencies (SRMAs) through the Federal interagency process to drive CPNT adoption.

According to the Volpe Center, it is prepared to make multiple awards if multiple proposals meet the solicitation requirements.

Responses to the request for quotation (RFQ) should include the bidder’s preferred test range model(s) out of the following three proposed models, where the proposed CPNT service can quickly become operationally ready to meet the Rapid Phase timeline objectives — no later than six months after award:

1. Federal Government‐hosted test range
2.  Critical infrastructure test range
3. Vendor-fielded test range

 Offers are due March 25, 2024. Click here for more information.

<p>The post DOT issues solicitation for CPNT services first appeared on GPS World.</p>

Image: Brightline

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has approved $2.5 billion worth of bonds to help fund the Brightline West high-speed rail project connecting Las Vegas, Nevada, and Southern California.

The 218-mile line, estimated to cost $12 billion in total, will run along the I-15 median with electric trains capable of running at 186 mph.

The DOT previously approved private activity bonds of $1 billion for the project in 2020. The second tranche of private activity bonds brings the total to $3.5 billion. In December 2023, the DOT also awarded a $3 billion grant from President Biden’s infrastructure law to the Nevada DOT for the project.

In June 2023, DOT awarded a $25 million grant to San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Program to be used for the construction of the Brightline West stations in Hesperia and Victor Valley, California.

Brightline West is expected to break ground in early 2024.

<p>The post US DOT approves $2.5B in bonds for Brightline West rail project first appeared on GPS World.</p>

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Warning sirens about the vulnerabilities of GPS to jamming, spoofing, solar activity and other disruptions have been blaring for many years. Now the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), which represents other federal civil departments and agencies on all GPS-related matters within the federal government, might finally be moving from study to action. On September 12, at the annual meeting of the Civil GPS Service Interface Committee held in conjunction with ION GNSS+ in Denver, Robert Hampshire, DOT’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology and Chief Science Officer, announced the release of DOT’s Complementary Positioning Navigation and Timing Action Plan. It aims to drive CPNT adoption across the United States transportation system and within other critical infrastructure areas. You can read more here and download the plan here. 

Which GPS vulnerabilities does DOT aim to address and how quickly can it “drive adoption” of CPNT? Attempting to answer these questions requires pushing through a dense thicket of bureaucratic jargon. I asked Karen Van Dyke, Director for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) and Spectrum Management in Hampshire’s office four questions. What follows are excerpts from her answers. You can read her full response here.

What is your office’s charter within the federal government to advance the development and deployment of complementary PNT?

Her office’s efforts, Van Dyke told me, “support federal policy governing PNT programs and activities for national and homeland security, civil, commercial, and scientific purposes. These include Executive Order 13905, Strengthening National Resilience Through Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services (EO 13905) and Space Policy Directive 7, The United States Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Policy (SPD-7).”

Which GPS vulnerabilities and at what scale is this plan addressing?

The action plan, Van Dyke told me, “addresses disruption, denial, and manipulation of GPS for critical infrastructure sectors” on “both a widespread and local scale.”

How and when will this action plan move the federal government’s posture on CPNT from study to action?

Van Dyke cited field demonstrations conducted in 2020 by the Volpe Center of candidate PNT technologies that could offer complementary service in the event of GPS disruptions and a 2021 report to Congress that distilled the PNT resiliency recommendations. DOT, she said, should develop “system requirements for PNT functions that support safety-critical services” and “standards, test procedures, and monitoring capabilities to ensure that PNT services, and the equipage that utilize them, meet the necessary levels of safety and resilience”.

How does DOT intend to engage PNT stakeholders?

Van Dyke pointed to a PNT Industry roundtable that DOT held in August 2022 that included representatives from CPNT technology vendors and critical infrastructure sectors and “informed the development” of the action plan. She also pointed out that on September 11, DOT issued a request for information “as one of the steps to drive adoption” of CPNT services “to augment GPS for the nation’s transportation system, and through the executive branch interagency process, for other critical infrastructure sectors.”

Stay tuned.

Matteo Luccio | Editor-in-Chief

mluccio@northcoastmedia.net

<p>The post First fix: Driving adoption of complementary PNT first appeared on GPS World.</p>

What is your office’s charter within the federal government to advance the development and deployment of complementary PNT?

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is the lead for civil PNT requirements in the United States and represents the Federal civil departments and agencies in the development, acquisition, management, and operations of GPS. The DOT Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) and Spectrum Management program (within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology) coordinates the development of Departmental positions on PNT and spectrum policy to ensure safety, mobility, and efficiency of the transportation network. The Department also provides civil PNT system policy analysis and coordination representing Federal civil agencies responsible for critical infrastructure in the requirements development, acquisition, management, and operations of GPS.

These efforts support Federal policy governing PNT programs and activities for national and homeland security, civil, commercial, and scientific purposes. These include Executive Order 13905, Strengthening National Resilience Through Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services (EO 13905), and Space Policy Directive 7, The United States Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Policy (SPD-7).

Which GPS vulnerabilities and at what scale is this plan addressing?

The DOT Complementary PNT Action Plan addresses disruption, denial, and manipulation of GPS for critical infrastructure sectors. These vulnerabilities of GPS include unintentional and intentional jamming and spoofing (both measurement and data spoofing) of the GPS signal and physically impeded environments in which the availability of the GPS signal is impacted (e.g., indoors, underground, and urban canyons). This plan is intended to address vulnerabilities/limitations of GPS on both a widespread and local scale.

How and when will this action plan move the federal government’s posture on CPNT from study to action?

In 2020, the DOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) conducted field demonstrations of candidate PNT technologies that could offer complementary service in the event of GPS disruptions. The purpose of the demonstrations was to gather information on PNT technologies at a high technology readiness level (TRL) that can work in the absence of GPS.

While this demonstration was a snapshot in time, there were two central recommendations from the demonstration:

1. U.S. DOT should develop system requirements for PNT functions that support safety critical services.
2. U.S. DOT should develop standards, test procedures, and monitoring capabilities to ensure that PNT services, and the equipage that utilize them, meet the necessary levels of safety and resilience identified in Recommendation 1.

The culmination of the demonstration program was the 2021 Report to Congress, Complementary PNT and GPS Backup Technologies Demonstration Report (2021 Demonstration Report). The PNT resiliency recommendations distilled in the 2021 Demonstration Report were vetted through a Federal interagency review process. During the same period, SPD-7 (directed to U.S. Federal Space-Based PNT service providers) and EO 13905 (directed to PNT users) were issued in a coordinated effort to strengthen U.S. PNT policy.

As part of its ongoing responsibilities as civil PNT lead, the Department has developed a Complementary PNT Action Plan to drive CPNT adoption across the Nation’s transportation system and within other critical infrastructure sectors. The plan describes actions that the DOT plans to pursue over the next several years, including engaging PNT stakeholders; monitoring and supporting the development of CPNT specifications and standards; establishing resources and procedures for CPNT testing and evaluation; and creating a Federal PNT Services Clearinghouse. Taken together with efforts of other Federal partners, these initiatives will continue to strengthen the resilience of the Nation’s PNT-dependent systems, resulting in safer, more secure critical infrastructure.

It should be noted that the U.S. Government is not procuring CPNT systems for non-Federal stakeholders, and as always, all activities are subject to the availability of appropriations.

How does DOT intend to engage PNT stakeholders?

DOT held a PNT Industry roundtable on August 4, 2022 that included representatives from Complementary PNT Technology vendors and critical infrastructure sectors. https://www.transportation.gov/pntindustryround

Feedback from this DOT industry roundtable informed the development of the DOT Complementary PNT Action Plan.

On September 11, 2023, DOT issued a Request for Information (RFI) as one of the steps to drive adoption of Complementary PNT services to augment GPS for the Nation’s transportation system, and through the Executive Branch Interagency Process, for other critical infrastructure sectors. U.S. DOT is planning a resiliency test, evaluation, and performance monitoring strategy for PNT-dependent transportation systems. Taken together with efforts of other Federal partners, these initiatives will strengthen resilience of the Nation’s PNT-dependent systems through the U.S. Government’s purchasing power as a demanding customer of Complementary PNT (CPNT) services, along with critical infrastructure owners and operators, resulting in safer, more secure critical infrastructure for the nation.

The DOT Volpe Center issued this RFI seeking information from industry about availability and interest in carrying out a small-scale deployment of very high technical readiness level (Technology Readiness Level (TRL)≥8) CPNT technologies at a field test range to characterize the capabilities and limitations of such technologies to provide PNT information that meet critical infrastructure needs when GPS service is not available and/or degraded due environmental, unintentional, and/or intentional disruptions. This deployment is intended to test these technologies against CI relevant requirements in order to gain confidence in performance and foster user adoption.

It is likely that DOT will hold future industry roundtables with Complementary PNT technology vendors and critical infrastructure sector owners and operators.

<p>The post Exclusive interview with US DOT first appeared on GPS World.</p>

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The United Kingdom’s Minister for Science, Research, Innovation announced in Parliament today a 10 point “policy framework” for advancing positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT).

The announcement addressed improvements to both PNT technology and policy. 

Six technology efforts were listed:  

• “National Timing Centre: develop a proposal for a National Timing Centre (NTC) to provide resilient, terrestrial, sovereign, and high-quality timing for the UK (UTC(NPL)), including sovereign components and optical clocks.” This project has been underway for some time and is being executed by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory. The announcement said another £14 million had been identified and was being allocated to the project. 
• “MOD Time: develop a proposal for ‘MOD Time’ creating deeper resilience through a system of last resort and use NTC provided timing to support MOD.”  
• “eLORAN: develop a proposal for a resilient, terrestrial, and sovereign Enhanced Long-Range Navigation (eLORAN) system to provide backup position and navigation.” In May, the UK’s spectrum office, Ofcom, sought interest from industry in obtaining eLoran broadcast licenses. The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a similar request for information this month.  
• “UK SBAS: develop a proposal for a UK Precise Point Positioning Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS-PPP) to replace the UK’s use of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), monitor GNSS and enable GNSS-dependent high accuracy position for autonomous and precision uses.” Since Brexit, the UK has not been a part of the EU’s Galileo enterprise. This SBAS decision comes after the UK government researched and rejected the idea of establishing its own GNSS. 
• “Next Generation PNT: deploy existing R&D funding into a UK Quantum Navigator and investigate possible options for a UK sovereign regional satellite system.” Britain has made development of quantum capabilities, including PNT, a particular national focus. 

• “Infrastructure Resilience: rollout resilient GNSS receiver chips, develop holdover clocks, and consider options for legislation on CNI sectors to require minimum resilient PNT.” The U.S. Executive Order 13905 points in a similar direction as this idea for legislation, which is a good segway to the announcement’s policy provisions. 

Four organizational and policy initiatives included in today’s statement in Parliament: 

• “National PNT Office: establish a National PNT Office in the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology to improve resilience and drive growth with responsibility for PNT policy, coordination, and delivery.” Last year the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation reported a cross-government office had been established by the UK that included representation from the Ministry of Defence. That office was within the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Since then, BEIS has been split into two departments, one of which is Science, Innovation, and Technology.  
• “PNT Crisis Plan: retain and update a cross-government PNT crisis plan to be activated if GNSS-provided PNT is lost and identify and implement short term mitigations.” Similar plans exist in the United States. The absence of an interference detection and monitoring system, though, has helped stymie U.S. government efforts to respond quickly and effectively. 
• “PNT Skills: explore options for centers for doctoral training in timing and PNT and review PNT skills, education, and training for longterm sovereign PNT capability.” A similar need has been identified by the U.S. President’s National Space-based PNT Advisory Board. 

• “Growth Policy: develop a PNT growth policy, including R&D programs, standards and testing, to drive innovation for PNT based productivity.” The U.S. PNT R&D Plan is a similar effort. 

Also mentioned in the statement to parliament are two new PNT documents published today by the UK Space Agency. The first is a summary of technical concepts developed under the Space Based PNT Programme. The second is an updated report on the economic impact to the UK of a disruption to GNSS.  

Both documents should be available in the House of Commons Library shortly. 

<p>The post UK government PNT plan focuses on policy, timing center, eLoran, defense time and SBAS first appeared on GPS World.</p>

(From left to right) Rick Hamilton, GPS Info Analysis Team Lead, U.S. Coast Guard; Harold “Stormy” Martin, Director, National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing; Dr. Bradford Parkinson, Edward Wells Professor, Emeritus, Aeronautics and Astronautics (Recalled), Co-Director, Center for Position, Navigation and Time, Stanford University; Capt. Scott Calhoun, Commanding Officer, U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center (NAVCEN) and Karen Van Dyke Director, PNT and Spectrum Management, U.S. Department of Transportation, gathered around a cake to celebrate the 50th anniversary of GPS.

Image: Matteo Luccio

Image: Matteo Luccio

A closer look at the 50 years of GPS cake. Learn more about the history of GPS here.

Image: Matteo Luccio

Lt. Colonel Robert Wray, Commander, Second Space Operations Squadron, U.S. Space Force (second from left), who was featured on the May cover of GPS World. Click here to read our May cover story, featuring an exclusive interview with Lt. Colonel Wray about the training and duties of his team, the challenges they face, and more.

Image: Matteo Luccio

Dr. Bradford Parkinson (left) and Dr. Robert Hampshire, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Research and Technology and Chief Science Officer, U.S. Department of Transportation (right). Click here to learn more about Dr. Bradford Parkinson, who is nicknamed “The father of GPS.”

Image: Matteo Luccio

Col. Andy Menshner, GPS Space and Ground (SML), Space Systems Command, U.S. Space Force, speaking about GPS acquisitions and development updates during the Civil GPS Service Interface Committee.

Image: Matteo Luccio

(Second from left) Karen Van Dyke, Director, PNT and Spectrum Manager, U.S. Department of Transportation Deputy Chair, serves as chair of the 63rd Civil GPS Service Interface Committee. Read more from the Department of Transportation here.

Image: Matteo Luccio

Attendees gathered to hear speakers from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Space Force, and other departments and agencies.

Click here to stay up to date with our show coverage!

<p>The post ION GNSS+ 2023: Day two recap first appeared on GPS World.</p>

Image: DOT

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has unveiled its Complementary Positioning Navigation and Timing (CPNT) Action Plan, which contains steps the department is taking to drive CPNT adoption across the United States transportation system and within other critical infrastructure areas. This plan was mentioned by Robert Hampshire — Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology and Chief Science Officer, U.S. DOT — during his keynote address at the annual Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC) meeting on September 12, at ION GNSS+, which GPS World’s Editor-in-Chief, Matteo Luccio, is attending.

In 2020, the U.S. DOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center conducted field demonstrations of various PNT technologies that could offer complementary service if GPS is disrupted. The department was able to gather information on PNT technologies at a high technology readiness level that can work in the absence of GPS.

The U.S. DOT have selected 11 candidate technologies to demonstrate positioning or timing functions:

• Two vendors demonstrated low-Earth orbit satellite PNT technologies — one L-band and one S-band; 
• two vendors demonstrated fiber-optic timing systems, both based on the White Rabbit Precision Time Protocol; 

• one vendor demonstrated localized database map matching database, inertial measurement unit, and ultra-wideband technologies; and, 
• six vendors demonstrated terrestrial radio frequency PNT technologies across low frequency, medium frequency, ultra-high frequency, and Wi-Fi/802.11 spectrum bands.   

Five of the selected technologies were demonstrated at Joint Base Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and six were demonstrated at NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia. The demonstrations were scenario-based implementations modeled on critical infrastructure use cases under different operating conditions.  

Two central recommendations from the demonstration were made: the U.S. DOT should develop system requirements for PNT functions that support safety-critical services; and the U.S. DOT should develop standards, test procedures, and monitoring capabilities to ensure that PNT services, and the equipage that utilize them, meet the necessary levels of safety and resilience identified in recommendation one.   

For the full U.S. CPNT Action Plan, click here. 

Request for information

The U.S. DOT has also released a request for information (RFI) as one of the steps in driving adoption of complementary PNT services to augment GPS. The department is planning a resiliency test, evaluation, and performance monitoring strategy for PNT-dependent transportation systems.  

If any readers are interested in participating, click here for more information.  

<p>The post DOT releases Complementary PNT Action Plan first appeared on GPS World.</p>

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In May the President’s PNT Advisory Board heard a presentation about a National Guard project called NITRO. RNT Foundation President, Dana Goward, recently spoke with the project’s leader, Maj. Gen. Richard R. Neely, Adjutant General, Illinois National Guard, to find out more.

Mr. Goward: Thanks for speaking with us, General. Could you start by telling us what NITRO is and why it’s important?

Maj. Gen. Neely: Of course. NITRO is a project to ensure that the National Guard and our state’s first-responder partners can maintain communications and other critical functions even if we lose GPS timing signals.

NITRO is an acronym for Nationwide Integration of Timing Resiliency for Operations. ]You know how we in the military love our acronyms.

Telecoms and most of the rest of America’s critical infrastructure are dependent on timing from GPS. However, GPS signals are weak, highly vulnerable and under threat.

In addition to bad actors who can and do jam and spoof signals, accidental interference happens all the time. Operations at the Dallas and Denver airports were each interrupted by accident for more than a day last year, for example. A couple of years ago, a passenger airliner almost hit a mountain because of interference with GPS.

Q: It sounds like this is a safety of life issue.

A: It is. Right now, if we lost GPS signals and had to respond to a domestic attack, natural disaster, or other contingency, I am confident there would be additional unnecessary casualties. We are building NITRO so that we can save those lives and keep America safe.

Q: So how does NITRO work?

A: In addition to GPS, it gets multiple sources of space-based and terrestrial time from government and commercial providers. NITRO can use any trusted source. It is not provider- or vendor-specific.

Inputs are combined and compared, matched to the nation’s atomic clocks keeping Coordinated Universal Time, and users are sent the best accurate time multiple ways including over fiber, terrestrial broadcast, and resilient wireless networks.

Another great way in which I think it will be useful: NITRO gives us a common operating picture that can help detect and terminate GPS disruptions and anomalies around the country.

Q: Is the National Guard the only user?

A: Absolutely not! This is a state/federal partnership. The states’ Adjutant Generals are working with their Homeland Security Advisors to make it available to state, local, and tribal first responders. In some instances, also to critical infrastructure.

Even though we are in the early stages of implementation, NITRO is being used by seven states and 256 organizations and it is protecting more than 33 million people, including citizens here in Illinois.

Q: Is NITRO a tasking from the President or Congress? Who told you to do this?

A: NITRO helps execute long standing presidential policy and orders, as well as the recently released National Cybersecurity Implementation Plan. It also meets congressional mandates for backups and alternatives to GPS timing.

However, we created NITRO because we identified a serious threat to the National Guard’s mission execution. It closes 11 operational gaps for us, all without changes to end-user equipment.

Q: With what groups are the NITRO team working?

A: All the states are involved through their adjutant generals, homeland security advisors, and emergency managers. The NITRO board I chair is made up of the adjutant generals from six states.

We are also coordinating across the federal government, especially with the Departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, Commerce, and Energy.

As part of this we are partnering with the Department of Transportation to establish a NITRO engineering and operational site at Joint Base Cape Cod. This will allow engineers from different organizations to see more easily what we are doing and contribute their expertise.

Q: NITRO is going to provide timing signals in places and at times when GPS is not available. Won’t the National Guard also need navigation information?

A: Positioning and navigation are very important, but not quite as critical as timing. So, we are addressing that problem first. And since wireless location and navigation are often based on timing signals, NITRO will provide a good foundation for services and systems that can augment GPS-based navigation.

Q: So, how is the project going?

A: From a technical and operational standpoint, it’s going great. We have very high satisfaction ratings from NITRO users, and states are eager to be connected as soon as possible.

The technologies used are all mature, reasonably low cost, and most components are commercially available. So, engineering-wise it is low risk.

And our team is doing a great job helping folks move from full dependency on GPS to resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) operations.

Q: Do you have any concerns going forward to full deployment?

A: The only thing I worry about is continued funding. Over the next five years we need something less than the cost of one GPS satellite. You would think that would be easy to find for an important effort like this, but it is a state/federal partnership, not a Department of Defense project. So, it falls into a kind of bureaucratic and budgetary no man’s land.

Q: What’s the solution for funding?

A: That’s not our call. The folks at the White House are exploring several alternatives, and I know several members of Congress are also concerned. We see a possibility of this fitting nicely with the recent infrastructure funding bill.

Q: It sounds like NITRO is something America really needs. Let’s hope they find a solution to the funding challenge, and quickly, to keep you on track. Thank you very much for your time!

A: My pleasure!

<p>The post Defending America and saving lives with NITRO first appeared on GPS World.</p>