Today the Open PNT Industry Alliance issued an endorsement of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Complementary Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) and GPS Backup Technologies Demonstration Report.
The following key passage from the Conclusions and Recommendations section of DOT’s report (p. 194) is quoted in the statement to underscore how the U.S. Government’s own findings are aligned with the principles of the coalition:
“The demonstration indicates that there are suitable, mature, and commercially available technologies to backup or complement the timing services provided by GPS. However, the demonstration also indicates that none of the systems can universally backup the positioning and navigations capabilities provided by GPS and its augmentations. The critical infrastructure positioning and navigation requirements are so varied that function, application, and end-user specific positioning and navigation solutions are needed. This necessitates a diverse universe of positioning and navigation technologies.”
The Open PNT Industry Alliance believes that “DOT is in an excellent position to strengthen economic and national security by supporting U.S. Government efforts to accelerate the implementation of many types of backup PNT capabilities for critical infrastructure.”
The statement goes on to say that “[t]he market has several innovative technologies and multiple forms of PNT that can meet the wide-ranging performance specifications and operational requirements of critical infrastructure owners and operators.”
The full statement offers additional background about the coalition’s position on the DOT PNT report.