Booz Allen’s Kevin Coggins: US Should Invest in Backup Long-Range Navigation System

Kevin Coggins, vice president for positioning, navigation and timing at Booz Allen Hamilton, has said that an internationally protected backup communications infrastructure can help ensure continued operations across the U.S. amid GPS outages.

Coggins wrote in an opinion piece published Wednesday on C4ISRnet that the U.S. should consider utilizing a long-range navigation system called eLORAN to transmit and receive signals that are “virtually impossible to jam or disrupt” with their high-power levels and low frequencies.

He noted that eLORAN signals have the capacity to penetrate buildings as well as subterranean environments like tunnels, making them useful for applications such as 5G communications, drone operations, emergency broadcasts and encrypted commercial communications.

According to Coggins, including eLORAN in stimulus funding would provide the nation with enough resilience to withstand GPS disruptions.

“The eLORAN technology can be deployed quickly and at a fraction of the cost of other systems. It will provide resilience for key infrastructure. It will unleash innovation and create jobs,” he said.

“The resilient, affordable, ground-based technology of eLORAN is the safety net we need.”