GPS World, February 2016

Inertial Ranging eLoran Wi Fi Bluetooth INERTIAL Inertial Effort Underway for MGUE T he U S Air Forces Joint Service Systems Management Office JSSMO has awarded Nor t h rop Grumman Corporation an order to support embedded GPS inertial navigation system INS pre Phase 1 modernization efforts Integration of inertial technology with GPS systems across all military platforms some such as munitions are already so equipped could have far reaching effects The move reflects the militarys concern over GPS vulnerabilities in challenged environments The Military GPS User Equipment MGUE program is developing M code capable GPS receivers which are mandated by Congress after fiscal year 2017 and will help to ensure the secure transmission of accurate military signals Under the 48 million order Northrop Grumman will perform trade studies assess the state of development of MGUE for upcoming applications and contribute to architecture development for next generation GPS inertial Blue Force Tracker units may add inertial to GPS for unit and individual soldier location navigation systems The JSSMO is responsible among other things for a GPS lab in the Department of Defense that helps develop and test software for GPS systems used throughout the military One of the systems it maintains is the Blue Force Tracker BFT which is used by all military branches and can track friendly units regardless of their location Not only can the system see where the unit is located it can also determine whether or not a unit is moving and what form of transportation it is using 10 GPS WORLD WWW GPSWORLD COM FEBRUARY 2016 Aviation Use The updated GPS inertial navigation system will also comply with the Federal Aviation Administrations NextGen air traffic control requirements that aircraft flying at higher altitudes be equipped with Automatic Dependence Surveillance Broadcast ADS B Out by January 2020 ADS B Out transmits information about an aircrafts altitude speed and location to ground stations and to other equipped aircraft in the vicinity The modernized system is expected to be available for platform integration starting in 2018 T he inertial navigation system INS market is projected to grow from 464 billion in 2015 to 887 billion by 2020 according to a January 2016 reported from research firm ReportLinker Factors driving the global INS market include the increasing number of aircraft technological advancements in navigation systems increasing demand for accuracy in navigation and availability of smaller components at lower cost Commercial platform application segment to witness the highest growth during the forecast period says the report Key applications considered in the market study are naval airborne land and commercial platforms The overall INS market is dominated by the naval platform segment However the commercial platform segment is projected to grow at a comparatively higher CAGR during the forecast period of 2015 to 2020 primarily driven by the demand for new aircraft in response to the burgeoning rise in air travel and congestion of airspace Recent advances in inertial technology have replaced the mechanical components with electronic ones particularly micro electro mechanical sensors MEMS Overall focus has remained on increasing the accuracy and reducing weight of the INS The major companies profiled in the report include Northrop Grumman Corporation U S Honeywell International Inc U S Sagem France Rockwell Collins U S and Thales SA France among others Inertial Market to Top 89 Billion by 2020