DOT Contracting for Stronger Position, Navigation, and Timing Tech

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a flurry of smaller contracts to nine companies to evaluate technologies they are developing that could strengthen existing position, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems that underlie the proper functioning of a range of critical infrastructure sectors.

The contract awards follow DOT’s call late last year for industry input on how to best complement PNT functions with new technologies that don’t depend on traditional Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, and to participate in field trials of those technologies.

The new contracts – totaling $7.2 million to nine firms – will provide “funding for instrumentation, testing, and evaluation of Complementary PNT technologies at field test ranges in conjunction with critical infrastructure owners and operators,” DOT said.

The importance of exploring stronger PNT technologies could scarcely be higher given the magnitude of critical infrastructure that they support.

“The primary and most recognizable PNT service supporting critical infrastructure is the Global Positioning System (GPS) utilized for all modes of transportation, including aviation, maritime, and rail,” the Transportation Department said.

“In addition to transportation applications, use of GPS is foundational through many sectors of the economy such as surveying, the financial sector, machine control, precision agriculture, science missions, and space applications,” the agency said.

GPS tech relies, however, on signals broadcast from satellites in medium Earth orbit (MEO), and that means that signal strengths at the receiving end of the line are low, and “thus vulnerable to intentional and unintentional disruptions,” DOT said. It said the new contract awards “will enable DOT to conduct real-world field tests of commercial PNT technologies to facilitate adoption into systems that depend on secure and reliable PNT services.”

“DOT is impressed with the quality of the proposal responses and received more proposals than could be funded under Simplified Acquisition Procedure guidelines,” said Dr. Robert Hampshire, the agency’s chief science officer.

One of the contract winners – Reston, Va.-based NextNav, Inc. – said DOT will test the company’s 3D PNT technology, which it said is a terrestrial solution that delivers PNT as a complement and backup to GPS.

“In 2021, the U.S. DOT recognized NextNav’s technology as the best-performing PNT technology in ‘all applicable use cases,’” the company said.

“As NextNav continues to develop technology solutions to address national security, economic, and public safety needs, we are pleased to engage with the U.S. DOT on the mission-critical work of testing our complementary PNT services,” said Mariam Sorond, NextNav’s chief executive officer. “We realize the importance of a terrestrial PNT complement and backup to support our nation’s critical infrastructure, and we look forward to working with the U.S. DOT to demonstrate our PNT capabilities,” Sorond said.