- Experts in French and British technology will collaborate on several projects
- One of them is to secure the technology used in GPS systems
- GPS must be more resilient in blocking and shuffling
British and French technology experts will work together more closely to make general practitioners and other similar technologies more resistant to disturbances.
The news was announced by the British Department of Sciences, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) earlier this week. According to the announcement, experts from the two countries will work together on a certain number of different projects, including strengthening the resilience of critical infrastructure to the binocula of the signal observed in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
“From our electrical infrastructure, to transport, to financial transactions, the technology on which we count for daily life depends on the positioning, navigation and reliable calendar (PNT), often supplied via satellites,” says the ad. “The conflict in Ukraine has shown how new technologies – in some cases, small portable devices – can be used to disturb the services of PNT, potentially causing a major disturbance of the vast areas of life and the economy that depend on them.”
e-luran
One of these complementary technologies, very resistant to jamming, is E-Loran, a system that uses radio towers on the ground as “backup” in GPS. DSIT describes it as “much more difficult” to block, and as such a critical British infrastructure technology can keep “even when GPS fail”.
The war in Ukraine seems to have exposed significant weaknesses of today’s GPS systems, which could find itself in the tragedy. According to Ukrainska Pravda, telegraph researchers examined data from the flight radar during the first four months of 2024, which included 63 British military aircraft completing 1,467 flights on Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
“Meanwhile, the military aviation of the United Kingdom has stolen 504 transport and recognition missions above Eastern Europe, including 142 meeting GPS jamming, and in 60 cases, such efforts have occurred several times,” said the publication.
At the same time, Business Insider said that Finnish soldiers were training with “basic navigation tools” – paper and compass cards, due to the lack of reliability of GPS systems.
Via The register
