GPS World, January 2014

EXPERT ADVICE positioning navigation and timing services eLoran Recommended In response the two departments consulted numerous experts and commissioned a study by the Institute for Defense Analysis IDA to determine what system or systems should be procured The IDA study team which included Brad Parkinson widely recognized as the father of GPS unanimously recommended that an existing and outdated nation wide navigation system called Loran C be greatly updated and modernized to eLoran Such a system would provide a navigation and timing signal comparable with and complementary to GPS They concluded that eLoran is the only cost effective backup for national needs it is completely interoperable with and independent of GPS with different propagation and failure mechanisms plus significantly superior robustness to radio frequency interference and jamming It is a seamless backup and its use will deter threats to US national and economic security by disrupting jamming GPS reception What the IDA did not find but that has since become evident is that establishing an eLoran system could be an important part of a network to identify and locate jamming attempts Since all eLoran transmitters would be synchronized with GPS and many navigation receivers would have both GPS and eLoran sensors differences between the two systems could be immediately detected and reported The body in charge of coordinating navigation and timing issues for the federal government is the National Space Based Position Navigation and Timing Executive Committee NPEC It is chaired by the Deputy Secretaries of Transportation and Defense Responding to early briefings on the IDA report which was not formally published until 2009 the Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security in 2007 told the NPEC that they had decided eLoran was Reliance on satellite navigation and timing systems has become a single point of failure for much of America and is our largest unaddressed critical infrastructure problem the right answer After further federal deliberations over how to create an eLoran system 2008 saw A press release by DHS saying that the department would implement eLoran using the old Loran C infrastructure February 7 2008 The DHS 2009 Budget in Brief February 2008 propose transferring legacy Loran C systems and 345 million year from Coast Guard to the National Protection Programs Directorate NPPD within DHS stating The FY 2009 budget transfers the budget authority for the LORAN C system from the United Sates Coast Guard to the NPPD The Department acting as Executive Agent will begin development of enhanced eLORAN as a backup for GPS in the homeland The National PNT Executive Committee endorse the above decisions March 2008 Failure to Launch Unfortunately DHS funding for 2009 came as part of a continuing resolution and the Congress did not see fit to approve the transfer of funds from Coast Guard to NPPD This was because influential members of Congress wanted the nation to have eLoran but were concerned about the lack of a plan for transition of this important capability from one agency to another The administration was asked to develop and submit a plan with with the next budget cycle A year later though no plan had been presented and the Presidents request and enacted legislation for 2010 contained no request to move and upgrade the system In fact it Brad Parkinson contained provisions for shutting down and defunding the old Loran C system without providing funds for NPPD or any other agency to establish the new eLoran capability No Solution At All What happened between one budget year and the next to take the nation from solution inhand to no solution at all is not a matter of public record Internal administration budget deliberations are not generally released to the public It does appear though that a new administration putting together its first real budget quite rightly wanted to shut down an antiquated system but did not understand the importance of a new one This and many other factors unquestionably played a role Movement Backward Without any funding DHS has since conducted several studies and experiments but has done very little of substance to address this critical infrastructure issue While Department of Defense DOD officials talk about the need for resilience experts throughout government and industry decry the lack of action and the Department of Transportation still has acquiring backup position navigation and timing capabilities on its to do list none have seen fit to move forward on their own Felling Towers Worse DHS is actually reducing the nations ability to create eLoran and a wide area interference detection and mitigation system An ongoing effort to fell towers and dispose of equipment from the legacy Loran C system will significantly increase the cost and time to operation of the new system the nation needs GPS World January 2014 www gpsworld com 10