OPINION — “The necessity for correct and uninterrupted PNT (Positioning, Navigation and Timing) has by no means been extra important to our warfighters who function in GPS (World Positioning System)-denied environments. The profitable launch of the NTS-3 (Navigation Expertise Satellite tv for pc-3) system is step one in updating twentieth century know-how to assist deal with present threats to our nationwide safety.”
That was Ed Zoiss, President of the Area & Airborne Techniques phase for L3Harris Applied sciences, talking August 13, in regards to the profitable launch and arrival in orbit of NTS-3, probably the most superior U.S. experimental navigation satellite tv for pc in almost 50 years, that was designed and led by the Air Power Analysis Laboratory (AFRL) with L3Harris Applied sciences as prime contractor.
NTS-3 is managed by the AFRL Transformational Capabilities Workplace in partnership with the U.S. Area Power and U.S. Air Power.
Area Power’s GPS gives essential positioning capabilities to navy, civilian, and business customers all over the world. The USA authorities created GPS for the navy in 1973, launched the primary satellite tv for pc in 1978, made the system out there to civilians in 1988, and has operated the total system of 24 satellites since 1993.
Right now it’s freely accessible to anybody with a GPS receiver, which implies greater than six billion customers worldwide, based on GPS World, with an estimated 170 million within the U.S. Each day, GPS satellites support in air visitors management, banking, farming, mobile networks, and numerous different industries, and it’s maybe the house system that most individuals all over the world depend upon every day.
Nonetheless, based on the Air Power, “The quickly growing tempo of latest threats to GPS, equivalent to jamming and spoofing, point out that agile and resilient approaches to reinforce the GPS system are wanted to keep up customers’ entry to its essential service.”
The GPS system’s 24 operational satellites are strategically positioned in six medium earth orbits (MEOs), at an altitude of roughly 12,550 miles, with three to 4 satellites in every aircraft making two orbits a day. This configuration ensures that at the least six satellites are seen from any level on Earth at any given time.
NTS-3, is predicted to vary the structure for satellite tv for pc navigation and to ship extra sturdy PNT capabilities to warfighters.
NTS-3 will perform some 100 exams over the approaching 12 months from near-geosynchronous orbit (GEO), the place the satellite tv for pc orbits instantly above the equator at about 22,236 miles above the earth. The satellite tv for pc’s orbital interval is near 24 hours and seems stationary from the bottom,
thus giving NTS-3 a transparent, unobstructed and distinct vantage level with out the interruption of climate or atmospheric distortion.
The NTS-3 program integrates a space-based payload, a reconfigurable floor management phase, and agile person receivers — all linked by reprogrammable software program. This structure permits for speedy updates throughout all segments, enabling operators to counter jamming, deploy new indicators, and adapt to evolving mission necessities with out changing {hardware}.
In keeping with an AFRL launch, “The [NTS-3] satellite tv for pc will broadcast navigation indicators from its phased-array antenna, which may electronically steer indicators to a desired area [on earth] with out bodily transferring the satellite tv for pc. These indicators are created by means of a digital, on-orbit reprogrammable PNT sign generator, which not solely helps legacy indicators and superior indicators not presently broadcast on GPS, but in addition permits new sign updates after launch.”
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NTS-3 will take a look at a brand new digital sign generator, AFRL stated, “that may be reprogrammed on-orbit, enabling it to broadcast new indicators, enhance efficiency by avoiding and defeating interference, and including signatures to counter spoofing.” A purpose is to make doable the importing of a sign to the satellite tv for pc and begin transmitting it with out having to relaunch your complete satellite tv for pc.
AFRL additionally stated NTS-3 can even take a look at “the CHIMERA (Chips-Message Sturdy Authentication) sign authentication protocol, which is designed to collectively authenticate satellite tv for pc orbit knowledge and measurements of the vary between the satellite tv for pc and person.” CHIMERA gives “an especially sturdy safety towards GPS spoofing for civil customers. Future variations of CHIMERA, or totally different sorts of indicators, will be uploaded to the satellite tv for pc at any level after launch, primarily based on new information or menace developments on the bottom.”
Over the subsequent 12 months, AFRL will conduct a sequence of demonstrations to evaluate these applied sciences in lifelike operational eventualities, from countering digital interference to quickly deploying new sign configurations in response to rising threats.
“As a result of SATNAV (satellite tv for pc navigation) is critically depending on exact timekeeping,” AFRL stated, “NTS-3 may have a number of atomic clocks and timing sources onboard the satellite tv for pc that can be used each independently and as an optimized ensemble to permit for automated clock error detection and correction.”
The NTS-3 Floor Management Section (GCS), AFRL stated, is suitable with the Enterprise Floor Companies, an structure that the Area Forces’ Area and Missile Techniques Heart is growing, to offer a typical system for satellite tv for pc command and management. “The purpose is to maneuver from a portfolio of stove-piped floor methods to a single system that can join with all Air Power and Area Power satellites, saving hundreds of thousands of {dollars} by streamlining person coaching and operations,” AFRL stated.
NTS-3 floor management can also be planning to leverage commercially-available companies equivalent to floor antennas and monitoring receivers to extend alternatives for contact time with the satellite tv for pc whereas decreasing dependence on already strained authorities antenna sources.
AFRL can also be working with the non-profit MITRE Corp., to develop a reprogrammable software-defined receiver known as the World Navigation Satellite tv for pc System Check Structure (GNSSTA). That new receiver will permit customers to obtain each legacy GPS and superior indicators generated by NTS-3 — and is in fact essential.
Warfighters would be the final beneficiaries of the impression of latest navigation applied sciences and built-in SATNAV capabilities, and any modifications to the sign being broadcast from house should be communicated to and coordinated with that person phase. NTS-3 exams can be used to exhibit new options for warfighters carrying so-called Software program-Outlined Radios (SDRs), able to receiving and processing reprogrammable SATNAV indicators.
Testing will present whether or not warfighter SDRs “will be capable to entry correct PNT knowledge and enhanced versatile anti-jam and anti-spoof protections,” based on AFRL. “Classes from the GNSSTA software program structure developed by means of NTS-3 will pave the way in which for future DoD main protection applications to efficiently join service women and men to a versatile and resilient SATNAV structure of the long run.”
Very similar to downloading a brand new smartphone app, consider what future NTS-3 software program updates can deliver routinely to future customers with out the recapitalization effort sometimes required to improve.
That is the long run for customers of GPS. Hopes are excessive that NTS-3 will information us down the proper path.
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