The US Army Will Test a New GPS That’s Resistant to Jamming This Fall

As reported by The Verge: This fall, the US Army will test a jam-resistant GPS to try and overcome the problem, Breaking Defense, following suspicions that Russia has jammed GPS signals in Europe and elsewhere.

GPS jamming can also be a major liability for US and allied forces, which depend on the system for everything from troop movement to missile and drone guidance. Last fall, the US and NATO allies launched a major joint exercise in Norway called Trident Juncture, to test the joint readiness and training of a large, multinational coalition. Over the course of the exercise, the military noticed that GPS signals were being jammed, which Finland and Norway officials attributed to Russia. In April 2018, US officials said that the Russian military had been jamming the GPS systems for is drones operating in Syria.

Members of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment located in Germany will get the devices this fall, and the Army is reportedly looking into developing a new generation of Inertial Navigational Systems that could be used as a back up.

Speaking at the C4ISERnet Conference in Arlington last week, Colonel Nickolas Kioutas, the project manager for the Army’s acquisition developer Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) said that getting the devices to units quickly was essential, and that the Army is working to roll out equipment in “smaller, iterative programs.” Breaking Defense notes that getting the systems into the hands of units like the 2nd Cavalry will allow the Army to quickly evaluate the technology and improve it if needed — rather than taking years to develop and test equipment that turns out to be flawed.