(May 17, 2016) With the recent disruption of GPS service by North Korea still in mind, the Army News Service reports the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working now to develop a backup system to be used by service members in the event that access to GPS is denied to them by adversaries.
A new project, the “Spatial, Temporal and Orientation Information in Contested Environments”, or STOIC, is meant to provide position navigation and timing in situations where GPS is denied to U.S. forces.
The STOIC project makes use of VLF signals already being generated by the Navy for use in communicating with submarines. The VLF stations are located around the globe in fixed locations. In part, STOIC uses those signals to triangulate a user’s position on the globe, in much the same way a GPS receiver is used.
The project team is planning to demonstrate real-time positioning with their system by fiscal year 2018 or 2019. There will also be an at-sea demo this summer.
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